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<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0>  <iframe src="http://ads.100megswebhosting.com/cgi-bin/advertpro/banners.fpl?region=4&keyword=NULL" height="1" width="1" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" vspace="0" hspace="0" frameborder="0" align="middle" scrolling="no"> <script language="JavaScript" src="http://ads.admonitor.net/adengine.cgi?F1936|1017|1|jscript|C14389|||"> </script> <noscript> <a href="http://ads.admonitor.net/clicktrack.cgi?F1936|1017|1|image2|C14389|||" target=_top> <img src="http://ads.admonitor.net/adengine.cgi?F1936|1017|1|image2|C14389|||" border=0 width=1 height=1></a> </noscript> </iframe>  <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=22 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="097000d2egerdp.gif"> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=145 BGCOLOR="#333399" TEXT="#080000" background="096a2c00erkjzj.gif"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="WELCOME TO TOFOGSWORLD!"><U><B>Home Page</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="TOFOG News"><U><IMG SRC="0991e140.gif" border=0 width="30" height="20" ALT="up" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id17.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Upcoming Releases"><U><IMG SRC="09a280e0.gif" border=0 width="40" height="14" ALT="previous" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A><A HREF="id51.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Other Interviews News Page 2"><U><IMG SRC="09b280e0.gif" border=0 width="40" height="14" ALT="next" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="20" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="30"></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="3690aae0.jpg" border=0 width="266" height="174" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Dean, David K, Russell</div> </td> <td valign="top" height=458 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I><B>WELCOME TO TOFOGSWORLD!</B></I><FONT SIZE="6" COLOR="#333399" FACE="Palatino Linotype" ><I><B> </B></I></FONT><FONT SIZE="6" COLOR="#663399" FACE="Palatino Linotype" ><I><B> </B></I></FONT></div> <div> <B>Home of the Unofficial</B><I><B> Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts </B></I><B>Fan Site</B></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Palatino Linotype" > </FONT><A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="TOFOG News"><U><B>TOFOG News</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id15.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Austin Gigs August 2000"><U>Austin Gigs August 2000</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id16.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Fans Experiences"><U>Fans' Experiences</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id17.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Upcoming Releases"><U>Upcoming Releases</U></A>   |   Other Interviews   |   <A HREF="id51.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Other Interviews News Page 2"><U>Other Interviews & News Page 2</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id53.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Fans Album Reviews "><U>Fans' Album Reviews </U></A> </div> <div>  <img src="HTMLobj-1515/aniGif.gif" border="0" align="bottom" width="500" height="22">  </div> <div> <I><B>Other Interviews & News</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>I feel that it is my duty to focus on bringing all I can to my readers pertaining to the music that the band produces. I will edit if necessary any gossip in the articles and other news that I post to accommodate those that are ONLY interested in the band's music. Please refer to other sites for the gossip. Thank you. </B></I></div> <bR> <div> <I><B> <img src="HTMLobj-1562/aniGif.gif" border="0" align="bottom" width="60" height="25">  </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>04/27/2001</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Crowe aids Souths ball</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Herald Sun (Australia)</B></I></div> <div> <I>Yes we are aware of the newspaper's typo of the band's name.</I></div> <div> HOLLYWOOD star Russell Crowe can't get to South Sydney's Red and Green Ball on May 5 but he will still participate in the gala event.</div> <div> Crowe will send six signed copies of his band's (Forty Odd Foot Of Grunt) latest CD to be auctioned and will also sign a Souths jumper. He may also send across a video message to the club, attempting to be reinstated to the <A HREF="http://www.nrl.com.au" target="_blank" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.nrl.com.au" target="_blank"><U>NRL</U></A> (National Rugby League).</div> <div> <I><B>_____________________________________________________________________________</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>TOFOG listeners needed! </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>From Quietone2 of the Crowes Perch</B></I></div> <div> Posted this on the Russell Revelers board last night... on second thought it was probably more appropriate for this area.... </div> <div> For the past several years, as part of the "Aids Hike for Life" on the campus I work at, one of the DJ's takes over the airwaves for a 24 hour marathon and, for a donation, allows you to say or play whatever you want. Well, it was just too good to pass this opportunity by. This Friday (April 20th, at midnight east coast US (daylight savings time I think - it's alittle after noon right now), 6 TOFOG songs will be eminating from WHCL's (our campus's radio station) airwaves. </div> <div> The DJ doesn't know it's going to be TOFOG, he only knows it's an Australian band that doesn't normally get airplay here in the US. We are even considering a contest to see if someone on campus can name the band. If they do, I've agreed to make an additional donation. </div> <div> The even better news, and the reason I'm sharing this here is the station broadcasts on the web. So if you have access and realplayer you can listen in. Just go to <A HREF="http://www.whcl.org" target="_blank" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.whcl.org" target="_blank"><U>www.whcl.org</U></A> and click on the listen now button. It's pretty clearly marked. If you go there before midnight Friday, remember it is a college radio station. They have great imaginations and a wide variety of musical tastes! </div> <div> I may even come out of quiet mode for this one. If you get a chance, I hope you give a listen!</div> <div> <I><B>_____________________________________________________________________________</B></I> </div> <div> <I><B>Milan February 27, 2001</B></I></div> <div> <I><B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="322" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 25 WIDTH="318"><div> <I><B>TOFOG or Not TOFOG</B></I><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Palatino Linotype" ><I><B> </B></I></FONT></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 18 WIDTH="318"><div> <I><B>By Heather O'Brian </B></I></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></I></div> <div> <IMG SRC="7648cd40.jpg" border=0 width="140" height="212" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <I>Giorgio Armani and Russell Crowe at a Milan Italy press conference announcing the benefit concert by Russell Crowe and his band THIRTY ODD FOOT OF GRUNTS (TOFOG), Milan Italy, 02/26/01 (INFOPHOTO-Fashion Wire Daily) </I></div> <bR> <div> As Milan's Fashion Week slowly gathers steam, Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts, the Australian band that boasts "Gladiator" actor Russell Crowe as lead singer and guitarist, took the stage last night in a benefit concert held in Milan's Rolling Stone club. </div> <div> Thank goodness the band's name wasn't an accurate reflection of the musical quality. But still, our advice to Crowe is: Hold on to your day job. The charismatic actor told journalists before the concert that TOFOG's style could be described as folk music - "narrative based songs that have a connection with reality" - and is influenced by the styles of artists like Jim Croce, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Tom Jones. "You mix all these together and it's something like that. But not exactly." </div> <div> Crowe and friends kept a packed club - full of local models, actors, soccer stars and those who were lucky enough to get an invite - happily entertained for more than an hour. The band will be performing in the annual San Remo Italian music festival tonight, where feisty rapper Eminem will also make a guest appearance. </div> <div> TOFOG's performance was sponsored by Giorgio Armani with proceeds for the evening going to the local branch of Sarah Ferguson's charity, Children in Crisis. On stage, Crowe shouted out his greeting to the Duchess of York, who was accompanied by Gaddo Della Gherardesca. FWD wonders if Ferguson appreciated the band's rendition of "Somebody Else's Princess," a song Crowe dedicated to her. </div> <div> But an elegant Ferguson did tell FWD that the charity she heads is doing well. "The important thing is to help children, not to be big." Will she be staying on for any of this week's fashion shows? "No, I have to go home," she said. "Otherwise I'll have some children in crisis." </div> <div> Crowe was dressed casually for the concert, but made it known that he has worn Armani on other occasions. "Armani has dressed me for the Academy Awards," the actor said. "His clothes fit men, they're not for the boys. He makes clothes that are classic and for men with deep voices," Crowe said to a throng of journalists. </div> <div> <I><B>_____________________________________________________________________________</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Lothario Russ's yen for Penne</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>By SYDNEY CONFIDENTIAL'S PETER HOLDER and JO CASAMENTO, </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Daily Telegraph</B></I></div> <div> IT appears Russell Crowe hasn't limited his penchant for attached women to petite blondes who live on the other side of the globe. </div> <div> The Coffs Harbour crooner showed his appreciation of all things beautiful closer to home when, prior to his Oscar win, he did a handful of interviews to promote his first album with 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, Bastard Life or Clarity. </div> <div> Crowe was particular about which outlets he allowed to interview him. </div> <div> But one person he insisted on interviewing him was former Hey Hey It's Saturday presenter, Penne Dennison, who works on pay-TV's MusicCountry. </div> <div> According to insiders Crowe agreed to do the interview with MusicCountry strictly on the condition that it was by the gorgeous Dennison. </div> <div> Insiders say isn't the first time Russ has hit on Dennison and been knocked back, the first was when she interviewed him on Ground Zero several years back and he asked her out. </div> <div> He even promised to send a limousine to pick her up. </div> <div> When Confidential contacted the happily engaged Dennison she laughed, admitting the lothario had flirted with her on his last visit. </div> <div> "Russell is incredibly charming and flirtatious but I don't take it seriously at all. </div> <div> "When it comes to his music he's very professional -- and let's face it, as a woman it's nice to get paid a compliment, but I see it as a bit of fun." </div> <div> Dennison says she is very happy with her fiance Mark Kuban who she is set to wed later in the year. </div> <div> <B>Russell hosts the celebrity VJ Hour on Saturday at 7pm</B><B>. </B></div> <div> <I><B>______________________________________________________________________________</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>04/08/2001</B></I><I><B> </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>AUSTRALIA: Top of the pops</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>(C) 2001 Queensland Newspapers Pty Ltd</B></I></div> <div> <I><B> SUNDAY MAIL (QUEENSLAND) </B></I></div> <div> NOMINATIONS are being accepted for the third Australian Online Music Awards. The ONYA! awards, to be held in August, were set up to honour innovation and excellence in the delivery of digital music and internet music industry sites. More than 30,000 music lovers voted online last year in the 15 categories and organisers are expecting that to increase to more than 50,000 this year. Internet surfers have until April 21 to nominate sites in categories including the Most Popular Australian Artist Site, Most Popular Australian Digital Download Site, Most Popular Australian Fan Site, Most Popular Music Industry Resource and the Most Popular Australian Music E-zine. Newcastle band silverchair were voted the Most Popular Australian Artist Site last year, with Oscar-winner Russell Crowe's band Thirty Odd Foot Of Grunts winning Most Popular Australian Fan Site award. Details on how to nominate sites can be found at <A HREF="http://www.onya.com.au" target="_blank" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.onya.com.au" target="_blank"><U>www.onya.com.au/</U></A>. <I><B>_____________________________________________________________________________</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>04/01/2001 </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Times staff writers Gina Piccalo and Louise Roug contributed to this report. </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Source: LOS ANGELES TIMES</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>EDITION: Home Edition </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>SECTION: Southern California Living </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>(c) The Times Mirror Company 2001</B></I></div> <div> Dennis Misses Out: Dennis Quaid missed his chance to do for animals what Bob Geldof and Michael Jackson did for starving children in Africa. The producers of "Hollywood Goes Wild," a CD featuring the musical talents of a gaggle of celebrities, say they counted on Quaid in the early days of the project, a fund-raiser for the Wildlife Waystation in the Angeles National Forest. Quaid sold Mare Winningham on the idea, and soon Jeff Goldblum, Johnny Depp, Russell Crowe, Keanu Reeves and others followed. "He was a total mensch with a capital M," said co-executive producer Mark Fine. </div> <div> Then someone dropped the ball. When the time came to sign releases for one of Quaid's songs, Fine said, "we simply could not get a legal rep for Quaid to carry the message back to him by our deadline." </div> <div> Quaid's former romantic rival, Russell Crowe, is featured with his band, 30 Odd Foot of Grunts. "I was really pleased that we had an Oscar winner," Fine said. "Perfect timing." <I><B>____________________________________________________________________________</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>28Mar2001 </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>AUSTRALIA: Early signs of star material </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>(C) 2001 Herald and Weekly Times Limited</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Source: HERALD SUN 28/03/2001 P14 </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>By RACHEL RODDA </B></I></div> <div> Posing in his school photos at Sydney Boys High, Crowe holds up a flower bud for the camera when photographed with his 13As and Bs rugby team, with his now famous cowlick brushing his eyes. </div> <div> The unruly hair was gelled when the "kid from the suburbs" collected his best actor Oscar. </div> <div> Somewhat boisterous and flamboyant, Crowe was destined for something special, his teachers and old schoolmates said yesterday. </div> <div> A teacher remembers Crowe as a "a cheeky little fella". </div> <div> And naughty too, according to one account. Students implicated him in a stink bomb incident in year eight. </div> <div> Aside from part-time acting, rugby was his passion at school. He also joined the cricket team and army cadets with older brother Terry. </div> <div> At Vaucluse Public School, Crowe had his front tooth kicked out when he was 10 in a match against Beverly Hills. </div> <div> Sydney Boys High history teacher and rugby coach Tony Hannon recalled Crowe was a good-natured, fast-talking and fast-moving student, never still for a second. </div> <div> "He had a fair bit of cheek about him, but in a nice way. He was never any trouble. Russell was an energetic sort of person, he was busy outside of school but managed to find time with school activities," Mr Hannon said. </div> <div> "He was a bit perky and cheeky, he always had something to say." </div> <div> Fellow students were stunned to see Crowe as a big-time star. His classmates included real estate dynamo John McGrath, who now helps Crowe on property deals, and who was reluctant to talk yesterday. </div> <div> Although Crowe was involved with all the usual scrapes, Blake Veverka, now a senior constable with the State Protection Group, said he was a "pretty shy guy" who got on well with everyone. </div> <div> "He was one of the boys. Everyone got into trouble," he said. </div> <div> Troy Serhon said Crowe was part of a "stink bomb" incident in year eight. </div> <div> Crowe's then best mate Chris Kelly, now a broker in London, instigated the event. </div> <div> "We all leapt out of the window, we thought the whole school was going to be on fire. The gag went awry," he laughed. </div> <div> Mr Serhon, now working for Woollahra Council, remembered Crowe being "pretty boisterous". </div> <div> "He was always into anything apart from schoolwork," he said. </div> <div> "He had that image, you know, that he was going to do something like (acting). He was always flamboyant, he had that drifty flair about him. </div> <div> "He had a way of doing things, over-dramatising things a little bit." </div> <div> At 12, Crowe was taking roles on The Young Doctors. He landed small parts in the film industry through his parents Alex and Jocelyn, who moved to Sydney from New Zealand when he was four. They worked as film location caterers. </div> <div> Clad in a South Sydney jumper, Crowe worked alongside his future Sum of Us co-star, Jack Thompson. </div> <div> Crowe's family moved back to New Zealand when he was 14, where he finished high school and met guitarist Dean Cochran. The pair now play together in Crowe's band, Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts. </div> <div> In 1983, he landed a career breakthrough role in the stage production of Grease, followed by roles as both Dr Scott and Eddie in live productions of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. </div> <div> Crowe toured the show from 1986 to 1988 throughout New Zealand and Australia, where North Sydney-based agents Bedford and Pearce saw him. </div> <div> When not acting, Crowe earned cash as a car washer, a disc jockey, an insurance salesman and waiter. </div> <div> Peter Doyle Jr, from Doyle Restaurant at Watson's Bay recalled Crowe's unremarkable stint as a waiter at one of Sydney's best-known restaurants. </div> <div> "He was only with us for about two or three weeks as a waiter about 14 years ago, but his first love was acting," Mr Doyle said. </div> <div> "I think he was filling in time before another acting role came along and he made that abundantly clear to us." </div> <div> Other jobs included working as a bingo-caller on Pakatoa Island Resort, off the coast of Auckland. </div> <div> However, Crowe was reportedly ordered off the job for his uncouth way of calling numbers. "Number One: Up yer bum", was his favourite. </div> <div> Old boys at Sydney High hope Crowe will attend a 20th anniversary reunion in November. </div> <div> Mr Hannon said Crowe came back to school in 1993 after watching an emotional rugby grudge match between Sydney Boys and St Joseph's. </div> <div> "He turned up on Monday with gifts of water bottles in crates and autographed posters for the team. He said he was so moved by the game," he said. </div> <div> "I arranged for him to borrow Luke Mussett's jersey, number eight, for the movie, The Sum of Us." CROWE'S OSCAR IN LAUNDRY BAG BEST actor Academy Award winner Russell Crowe emerged from a Los Angeles hotel yesterday carrying his Oscar in a laundry bag and promising fans the gold statue wouldn't change him a bit. </div> <div> "Life just keeps rolling on, mate," Crowe said from behind dark glasses as he prepared to board a plane for New Jersey to continue work on the Ron Howard movie, A Beautiful Life. </div> <div> "This isn't surreal ... it is ultra real," he said, summing up an amazing night in which the 36-year-old New Zealand-born actor became the toast of Hollywood. </div> <div> After winning the Oscar, Crowe attended the Dreamworks studio party, but then opted to return to his hotel room and celebrate with his mates. </div> <div> "There's a whole list of parties that you are supposed to go to, but we didn't, we just came back here and got a room full of Antipodeans and we did it the right way," he said. </div> <div> The star said winning an Oscar wouldn't change the way he chose his films. <I><B>____________________________________________________________________________</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>03/27/2001</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>AUSTRALIA: BAD LUCK AUSSIES, HE'S OUR RUSSELL. </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>(c) The Evening Post</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Source: THE EVENING POST (NEW ZEALAND)</B></I></div> <div> "If only one could see the future. If you could put a group of those sort of people together in 1986 he would have been the least likely to have been a contender for an Oscar. I thought he would end up driving a cab or something." </div> <div> A stint in the Rocky Horror Picture Show helped hone his acting skills in New Zealand and Australia, and a part in cult Aussie movie Romper Stomper put him on the path to Hollywood. </div> <div> In his acceptance speech last night, Crowe dedicated the award to "two men who still inspire me", his grandfather Stan Wemyss, a cinematographer during the Second World War, and his uncle David Crowe, father of cricketers Martin and Jeff, who died last year. </div> <div> Crowe also made special mention of director Ridley Scott. </div> <div> "But this moment is directly connected to those childhood imaginings. And for anybody who's on the downside of advantage, and relying purely on courage, it's possible," he said. </div> <div> Crowe still plays with his band 30 Odd Foot Of Grunts, but his acting career was ignited by his 1997 performance as quick-tempered police detective Bud White in LA Confidential. </div> <div> Auckland Theatre Company director Simon Prast, who went to school with Crowe and appeared in The Rocky Horror Picture Show with him in the 1980s, said Crowe's victory was, on a global scale, "bigger than the biggest All Black victory you could ever imagine". </div> <div> "I think it's a very inspiring day, particularly for all the young people in this country who would like to explore their creative urges," he said. </div> <div> Veteran Australian actor Jack Thompson said Crowe had continued to keep his feet on the ground despite the movie world accolades. </div> <div> The two men co-starred in the 1994 Australian film The Sum Of Us, in which Thompson played the father of a homosexual son. "He is, if anything, more laid back, more easy going. Success becomes him," he told said. </div> <div> Thompson said whether Crowe thought of himself as a New Zealander or an Australian depended on whether there was a rugby match on. </div> <div> "When it comes to the Bledisloe Cup, he is without a doubt a Kiwi. When it comes to his involvement in a culture, he sees himself as an Australian, and quite rightly. </div> <div> "I'm sure he has influences of both colonial subcultures, but he has spent most of his life in Australia, and his childhood and his identification with icons and imagery were Australian, not New Zealand." <I><B>______________</B></I><I><B>______________________________________________________________</B></I></div> <div> <I><B><IMG SRC="6b1dc2e0.jpg" border=0 width="220" height="302" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></I></div> <div> <I><B>03/18/2001</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>The odd man out </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>The Sun-Herald</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Grunt man ... Russell Crowe in his Oscar-nominated Gladiator role. </B></I></div> <div> With Oscars hype exploding, his every move splashed across the tabloids and now a kidnap threat to deal with, it's no wonder that Russell Crowe would rather be off playing with his band, writes Michael Dwyer. </div> <div> The newsstands of Sydney's Circular Quay are almost collapsing under the weight of stories about Russell's latest loves and travails. Surnames? They're for nobodies. Like Tom, Nicole, Brad and Jennifer, the Kiwi Gladiator fleetingly pegged as Meg's "New Aussie Love" is a recognised fixture in the tabloids' Hall of Fame.</div> <div> But just metres away, in a plush hotel overlooking the harbour, soft news and hard reality diverge in a lavish suite disappointingly bereft of blonde starlets.</div> <div> This afternoon, at least, Russell Crowe's jet-set celebrity life is a boys' club. Indelicate language is afoot. A packet of fags sails across the room. Cartons of grog stand in waiting. Crowe's rock band, Thirty Odd Foot Of Grunts, is in the house.</div> <div> Don't laugh. Don't roll your eyes and lament the hubris of a grown man whose runaway acting career really ought to be enough to quell his juvenile yearning for the microphone and the mosh pit. These are standard responses to Crowe's Grunts.</div> <div> Given Crowe's acknowledged gifts on a different stage, it's a strange prejudice. How does an Oscar-nominated artist rationalise this mean-spirited view of his parallel (and, for the record, much longer) odyssey as a musician, singer and songwriter?</div> <div> "How do I rationalise it?" he growled, blowing smoke at the floor in his eagerness to tackle the question. "How do I rationalise having 10 pounds of bullshit written about me on any given day around the globe?" The rhetorical rejoinder hangs for dramatic effect.</div> <div> "That's got nothing to do with me. That's the thing that Russell Crowe has somehow become and it has nothing to do with me. I just have a sense of humour about it," he said in a decidedly humourless tone, "and I have a sense of pity for those people."</div> <div> The beefy 36-year-old's level gaze, three-day growth and thespian-deep voice make for an intimidating combination. But his pugilistic demeanour soon softens.</div> <div> "I understand it, mate, because I am as cynical and sceptical about popular music as anybody of my age who's seen the things that come and go," he said resignedly. "But I have the naive belief that if I keep doing it as honestly and as genuinely as I can, then sooner or later people are gonna listen."</div> <div> The maverick philosophy has clearly been handed down from Crowe the film star. This month, Oscar or no Oscar for his role in <I>Gladiator</I>, he begins work on <I>A Beautiful Mind</I> with director Ron Howard for a reported salary of $US15 million ($30 million). </div> <div> But the question of Crowe exploiting his screen success for the good of his rock'n'roll aspirations is a vexed one.</div> <div> There's no question his financial security has given TOFOG opportunities most independent bands only dream of. Their new album, <I>Bastard Life Or Clarity</I>, was rehearsed in London, recorded in Austin and Sydney and mixed in Los Angeles. No record company footed that bill. There have been generous corporate offers but they entail a degree of compromise which the band's singer, main songwriter and de facto leader flatly refuses to entertain.</div> <div> "The multinationals we've met with won't let me be just a part of the band," he explained. "We were pretty far down the track with contractual discussions just recently and it came down to a change of [album] title, a change of album cover, a change of song list, use of photographs, supermarket promotions.</div> <div> "I left the meeting and I said to [band manager] Andrew Watt, 'I can't do it mate, I cannot do it that way'."</div> <div> As Crowe's film career has amply demonstrated, a tiny little bit of obstinate ambition can go a long way. </div> <div> "I never even assumed I'd get the opportunity to make movies," he said. "What I thought I was aiming for was, at best, a lead role in an Arthur Miller production with the Sydney Theatre Company - preferably at the Opera House. That's what I was aiming for."</div> <div> Regardless of the relative merits of the Grunts' workmanlike urban folk-rock, there's no question Crowe the singer-songwriter is every bit as serious about his work as Crowe the actor.</div> <div> "Making music," he explained with some intensity, "it's the same thing with the acting. It's not something I ever considered not doing. There is no other option for me. I get all those clever questions these days: 'Do you think, in another time, you might have been a gladiator?' I just try to explain to people that even if it was 300 years ago I still would have been an actor or a performer. It's just what I do."</div> <div> For Crowe, what he does in his two mediums has already been eclipsed in some quarters by what he does, or is imagined to do, in his spare time.</div> <div> "I just try not to let it affect me," he said of the gossip, clearly agitated nonetheless, "because what's the endgame there? How do you stop it? You stop doing what you love? You stop putting yourself in a position where you're working at the highest calibre in an art form which is the most expensive medium that exists on the planet? Who wins then? </div> <div> "It's just stupidity. I'm just gonna keep doing what it is that I do."</div> <div> Things on his Mind</div> <div> Need at least three lines to explain why pic of Russ in his bandRussell Crowe's next project, <I>A Beautiful Mind</I>, is shaping up as the biggest challenge of his career. He will play Jewish-American academic John Forbes Nash jnr, a Nobel Prize-winning mathematician who has spent most of his life battling schizophrenia. Crowe is yet to meet him, though he clearly already knows his subject intimately. "I like to come at these things a little slowly, come at them from the outside," he said.</div> <div> "The incredible thing about John Forbes Nash was that he out-thought the disease. He had such a powerful mind that he stopped taking the drugs that were provided for him and he worked out in his head a way of being able to understand reality, as opposed to his imagined reality."</div> <div> For somebody in Crowe's position, coming to grips with that dichotomy sounds like a valuable exercise. Like everything else, it's not a challenge he's taking lightly.</div> <div> "Right now, as I'm talking to you about it, I have no idea whether I'll get anywhere near where it's supposed to go," he confessed with a nervous laugh. "At the moment it's just some gigantic mountain in front of me and I'm staring up at it thinking, 'Maybe they've got the wrong bloke'."</div> <div> <I><B>_____________________________________________________________________________</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>03/15/2001 </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>LACK OF CROWE</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Herald Sun, Edition 1 Page 053 </B></I><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Palatino Linotype" >   </FONT></div> <div> THE fortunes of Australian acts are a mixed bag this week. After He Don't Love You debuted at No. 18 in the UK, Human Nature dropped to 36. Madison Avenue's Who the Hell Are You? hit No. 1 on the US dance chart last week, but is now No. 4. Locally, Melbourne rock group Motor Ace enter at No. 4 with their debut album, and adopted son Neil Finn's comeback single enters at No. 77. Maybe the FBI is investigating the kidnapping of Russell Crowe's (right) album sales (30 Odd Foot of Grunts nosedived from No. 7 to 55). </div> <div> <I><B>_____________________________________________________________________________</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>03/09/2001 </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Copyright SEATTLE POST INTELLIGENCER </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>SEATTLE POST - INTELLIGENCER </B></I></div> <div> Sure, Russell Crowe survived a kidnapping plot, but can he survive the wrath of Jodie Foster? MSNBC reports that Crowe might have outed Foster, who directed him in the unfinished film "Flora Plum," during an interview about a song he wrote for his band, 30 Odd Foot of Grunts. He told an Australian TV station that the song, "Other Ways of Speaking," is about Foster, and that "It's about meeting somebody that you think that [you] could ... easily fall in love with.... But they, ah, they, in fact, play for a different team." </div> <div> "`Playing for a different team' could mean a lot of things," responded Foster's rep. Really? </div> <div> When discussing the song again recently, Crowe repeated that it was about Foster. This time, Foster's rep responded by clarifying that Crowe meant that the song is dedicated to Foster, and that she's not the subject of the song. Oh. Perhaps Crowe doesn't understand his own music. </div> <div> <I><B>_____________________________________________________________________________</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>03/8/01 AUSTRALIA: ROVING THE PLANET</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>(c) 2001 Nationwide News Pty Limited</B></I></div> <div> FUNNYMAN Rove McManus has never been bigger news. McManus, who has returned for a second series of his tonight live style show on Channel Ten, has, in just a few short weeks created the kind of controversy publicists can only dream of. McManus has turned his talents to hosting Ten's coverage of the Sydney Gay Mardi Gras, recorded a couple of fabulous and funny celebrity interviews with stars including visiting US singer Jennifer Lopez and let the Popstars cat out of the bag. He has now set his sights on finding the "faceless" friend who has been talking trash to the gossip mags about Gladiator star Russell Crowe. On the down side, McManus's show came in for a pasting when it was revealed that Crowe's band, 30 Odd Foot Of Grunt, had pre-recorded its closing segment rather than play the "live" format Nine, which canned the young star, forcing his move to rival network Ten, must be rueing its decision. "I must have done something right to be back again," says Rove. "I think I'm on my way to being a gay icon along with the likes of Pauline Hanson and Damir Dokic. McManus's sense of humour is anything but straight. He says he had to be careful with how far he could take each joke during the Mardi Gras coverage. "Obviously we have to be careful with how far we take a joke. Each float represents a different gay and lesbian cause so we're not out to have too much of a laugh at their expense. "But of course we're all there to have fun." Rove says the change in profile of the event is something Australians should be proud of. "People fly from other states and other countries to come and witness or be part of the parade. "Families and children now come to see the bright and colourful costumes and floats and enjoy the positive vibe." McManus says there is a positive vibe surrounding Rose Live's move to Ten. "People seem to be happy to see me back which is a good feeling," he says. "We're basically sticking to the same format because that seems to be what works. "But we've added the Livelist to the new series, which gives ordinary people the chance to make it on the show. "We construct a database from people who write in and register on our website and then we just drop around to their house, unexpected to them, during the show," he says. </div> <div> Rove Live screens Tuesdays at 9.30pm on Ten and Ten GC. </div> <div> <I><B>_____________________________________________________________________________</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>03/03/01 UK: THE BIG EASY</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>(c) The Scotsman Publications Ltd</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>By: John Milla</B></I></div> <div> Russell Crowe, bearded and wearing his hair long and floppy, looked - I was assured by a series of female fans - even more handsome than ever. Stylishly dressed in a dark blue suit and open-neck blue shirt, he also appeared to be rather more relaxed than you'd expect for someone who was about to enter "the lion's den". </div> <div> The 36-year-old New Zealand-born actor, whom one newspaper's front page proclaimed as "the sexiest star in the world", was set to face the might of the British Press and deal with attempts to intrude into his private life and accusations of being a difficult actor and a marriage wrecker. </div> <div> The actor, whose turn in Gladiator brought Roman epics back to the box office, was in London to walk the red carpet for the British premiere of his new film, Proof Of Life. </div> <div> But before that star-studded occasion he had to deliver a home movie. So he made a detour, taking a helicopter trip from Stansted Airport, where his private jet landed from a whistle-stop European publicity tour, to the south coast of England, in order that a schoolgirl's birthday should become an extra special event. She was the daughter of one of the Oscar-nominated star's oldest friends, from the days long before the world has become aware of the talents of Russell Crowe. Unfortunately, her birthday party clashed with the Proof Of Life premiere, so Crowe dropped in on his friends a day early. He also left behind the video footage, which featured his birthday greetings, so that the next day it could be played for the youngster who'd know that "Uncle" Russell hadn't forgotten about her big day. </div> <div> This generosity of spirit isn't the sort of thing you normally read about in the miles of column inches that have been devoted to the Antipodean actor. But scratch the surface of Crowe, whose father's father was from Wrexham and whose mother's family are a mixture of Scots, Maori and Norwegian, and you'll discover a more sensitive individual than you might have expected. </div> <div> Evidence of the softer side of Crowe can be found in the pop songs he writes for his band, Thirty Odd Foot Of Grunts. On their latest album, Bastard Life Or Clarity, he has a song called Memorial Day, dedicated to his grandfather, a Second World War veteran. "I take the music quite seriously," says Crowe, who is well aware that most folk will look upon this part of his life as the self-indulgence of a movie star. "At this point in time, there is absolutely no credibility in the fact that I am in a band. People think it's a joke - until they actually hear the music. </div> <div> "I like to write songs, which some people see as a really goofy thing. But a pop song for people of my generation is a totally valid creative expression. Sometimes there is no better way to put things that have happened in your life in focus than to put them in a three-and-a-half minute song." </div> <div> Russell Crowe has lived a life that's full of grist for his songwriting mill, although right now, he'd probably prefer if what he's done, or alleged to have done, wasn't of such tantalising interest to the tabloid newspapers. </div> <div> "I have stopped reading things," he says, in obvious reference to the media coverage that was attracted by his affair with Proof Of Life co-star Meg Ryan, which ended towards the end of last year. "Even though I like to be prepared, it gets to the point where it's so much bollocks, you let it slide." </div> <div> So how does he cope with the combination of gossip and glorification that appears to go hand-in-hand with big screen success? </div> <div> "These things... you can talk about them and examine them, but I'm not really sure if they are that important," he says. "The important thing for me is that I am not driven by people's praise and I am not slowed down by people's criticism. I'm just trying to work at the highest level I can in a great medium for creative expression." </div> <div> As far as Meg Ryan is concerned, Crowe insists that the collapse of her marriage to Dennis Quaid had nothing to do with him. He refers to the actress, whom he describes as "a beautiful and courageous woman", with great affection and dignity. "I grieve the loss of her companionship but I have not lost her friendship," he says. "We talk all the time and that was what our connection was about. She has a wonderful mind." </div> <div> As Crowe's profile gets higher, the actor finds himself compared with a host of famous figures, ranging from Richard Burton and Marlon Brando to Steve McQueen. One-time hell-raisers like Richard Harris and Sir Anthony Hopkins, with whom he has worked, recognise him as a soul mate. So does Crowe reckon he comes from that same sort of mould? </div> <div> "I don't know about moulds, mate," he laughs. "I found Richard to be a fascinating individual and a great bloke to sit down and have a chat with. Playing a scene with him was absolutely magnificent. He is a very wise man and has covered a lot of things in his career; damaged himself a lot and then repaired himself. Richard has such a lionheart. </div> <div> "When I get the opportunity to meet someone who has such a great career and has experienced so many things and yet is still such a totally balanced individual who hasn't changed, it gives me inspiration. You can do this job for your lifetime, the insanities may come and go, but it's all in waves and, at the end of the day, you can still be yourself." </div> <div> When I mention that Hopkins has said that Crowe reminded him of his younger self, he chuckles. "When I first heard that, I took it as a compliment. I thought that was great. Then somebody put forward that I might actually be reminding him of his younger self when he was an alcoholic. Maybe he meant it as a warning to me." </div> <div> Today he commands headlines across the world. His performance in Gladiator, as Maximus, the Roman general-turned-gladiator out for revenge on a murderous Emperor, has made him a favourite for next month's Best Actor Academy Award. Yet just a few years ago, as far as mainstream movie audiences were concerned, he was Russell Who? </div> <div> The more astute cinemagoers might have been aware of his riveting, award-winning performance as a Nazi skinhead in the Australian film, Romper Stomper. Crowe's elevation to greater things was delayed, however, as movies such as The Quick And The Dead, in which he and Sharon Stone were gunslingers, and Virtuosity, which had him cast as a computerised serial killer being pursued by Denzel Washington, mis-fired. But even when things weren't going so well, Stone knew that her co-star had the right stuff. She described Crowe as "charismatic, attractive and talented but also fearless". </div> <div> It wasn't until he hit a rich seam of roles - as Bud White, the no-nonsense cop in LA Confidential, whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand in The Insider, which earned him his first Oscar nod, and the box office blockbuster Gladiator - that Crowe was to move into Hollywood's premier league. Now he's at the peak of his powers, but is Russell Crowe still the same person? "Yeah," he answers, without a moment's hesitation. "I don't think that fundamentally I've changed at all. I'm still the same ahole I was 20 years ago." That self-deprecating bit of humour is typical, but not quite accurate. </div> <div> For starters, he has learned diplomacy. Once upon a time, any inquiry about whether Crowe, whose home is a farm outside Sydney, might ever settle in Hollywood would have produced this response: "I'd move to Los Angeles if Australia and New Zealand were swallowed up by a huge tidal wave, if there was a bubonic plague in Europe, and if the continent of Africa disappeared from some Martian attack." </div> <div> When we meet this time round, though, his reaction to a similar question is much more circumspect. "America is a really big country and there are lots of beautiful places there. I have a lot of good friends in LA and I have been going in and out of that town for 10 years. I am very comfortable there, but living there is a different thing. However, never say never. I try to remain open to see what life brings along." </div> <div> One impression of Crowe that remains constant is that, when it comes to film-making, he is single-minded. Taylor Hackford, the director of Proof Of Life, calls him thorny, difficult and questioning. </div> <div> Certainly, if Crowe disagrees with something, he'll make his point forcefully. An example occurred during the making of Gladiator when the producers wanted a love scene between Maximus and Lucilla, the Emperor's sister. "That would have been ridiculous," he says. "Maximus is avenging the death of his wife and for him to suddenly have nookie with the Emperor's sister would go against the honour and structure of the character. Ridley Scott (the director) and I had quite a battle to get the producers to see that we shouldn't do that. We won. </div> <div> "If I am going to play the character, I like to know that I am going to give it as much as I can. I don't see that as being difficult. </div> <div> Directors like Curtis Hanson (LA Confidential), Ridley Scott and Michael Mann (The Insider) don't see it that way either. They see that as a help." During the filming in Ecuador of Proof Of Life, in which he plays a hostage negotiator who falls in love with Meg Ryan while trying to gain her husband's freedom, Crowe went his own way. The jungle location was about an hour and a half away from Quito and the actor did not fancy a three-hour round trip being bounced about on some dodgy roads. "Ecuador's roads are not the best in the world, particularly when you get out of the city centre. You have pot holes, seven or eight earthquakes a day, which means that there are a lot of landslides. So I started living in the jungle," he says, as though it was the most natural thing. "I lived in my trailer, made a barbecue out of an oil can, stole food off the caterer and waved as everybody drove out at the end of the day and greeted them in the morning. The locals said, 'Are you crazy? There are wild cats and stuff in the jungle.' But frankly I'll take the wild cats over Ecuador's drivers any day of the week." </div> <div> Out in the jungle any spare time was spent reading scripts. He says he's continually looking for things that are exciting to do, scripts that will give him the goose-bumps, which Crowe regards as a sign that it is a film for him. </div> <div> "I don't read books so much any more because I'm reading hundreds of script pages every week," he says. "That kind of bothers me a little bit. But you have got to read everything that comes along because it's not the scripts that are really pushed at you that surprise you." </div> <div> His next movie will be with Ron Howard, the director of The Grinch. Called The Beautiful Mind, it features Russell as a schizophrenic mathematician. </div> <div> "That'll be interesting," said Crowe. "To prepare, I'm doing what I normally do, which is read a lot. Then I'll find out what the questions are that I've got to ask. </div> <div> "The mathematics, at the moment, are so far beyond my understanding. It's about instinctively being able to find an answer to a very complicated question and then prove how you got to the answer. Thankfully it's only a movie because I was hopeless at maths when I was at school." He may not have been the best student, but Russell Crowe would probably be every school girl's ideal maths teacher. </div> <div> <I><B>_____________________________________________________________________________</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>03/07/01 AUSTRALIA: ENTERTAINMENT NEWS</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>COURIER MAIL (QUEENSLAND) </B></I></div> <div> MELODIC rock with a dash of good ol' pub rock fire and a deep-voiced thirty-something singer is not the usual fare of the top 10 these days. Unless the singer's name happens to be Russell Crowe, below. His band, 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, or TOFOG as they are known these days, debuted at No 7 in the Australian albums chart this week with their Bastard Life Or Clarity, which is almost unheard of for a band without a record company or much radio airplay. Part of this unprecendented interest is no doubt from people checking out lyrics to songs like Wendy, about a woman who has "got no husband who cares". But Our Russ isn't giving too much away. Crowe-spotters won't find much in the way of personal revelation anywhere on the lyrics printed on the sleeve. </div> <div> <I><B>_____________________________________________________________________________</B></I></div> <div> <I><B><IMG SRC="68640e50.jpg" border=0 width="320" height="229" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></I></div> <div> <I><B>03/02/2001</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Swords and Sandals? No, Songs and Armani </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>By MICHAEL QUINTANILLA, Times Fashion Writer</B></I></div> <div> MILAN, Italy--Russell Crowe, the Oscar-nominated actor who fought off tigers in Ridley Scott's epic "Gladiator," fought off fans after performing with his Australian rock band Tofog (Thirty-Odd Foot of Grunts) at a charity fund-raiser hosted by fashion designer Giorgio Armani to kick off a rainy and freezing cold fashion week here. </div> <div> Casually dressed in faded jeans and a white tee under a black unbuttoned shirt, Crowe, who has worn Armani to the Academy Awards, said he's a fan of the designer because "his clothes fit men, they're not for the boys. He makes clothes that are classic and for men with deep voices." </div> <div> Onstage at the Rolling Stone club, the 36-year-old actor, who has been singing since 1980, announced to the throng of 2,000--full of local models, actors, soccer stars and MTV veejays--"This is the best-looking audience we've ever played before." For sure, the trendy and mostly 20-something crowd at the front of the stage was dripping in hip threads: lots of tight leather on svelte and buff bodies donning great haircuts and sunglasses at night. </div> <div> For almost an hour, a tousled-haired Crowe, lead singer and guitarist, belted out songs in a benefit concert for the local branch of Sarah Ferguson's charity, Children in Crisis. During the show, Crowe shouted out to the Duchess of York, "We're gonna sing for Sarah," and then belted out the band's rendition of "Somebody Else's Princess." </div> <div> Ferguson, chic in a beaded Armani top and skirt, said she was grateful to the designer and Crowe for helping to bring public awareness to the charity she founded in 1993 after visiting Poland, where she witnessed children in need of the basic necessities of life. </div> <div> "I believe everyone has the right to dignity, especially children. And tonight we have two gladiators--Russell and Mr. Armani--helping to fight for the cause of kids," she said backstage, above the blare of Crowe's music. </div> <div> Meanwhile, Armani, a shy, elegant man, maintained a low profile as he mingled with friends, including Miramax Films President Harvey Weinstein, in a VIP area. Weinstein, who flew in from Rome at Crowe's request, where he's filming "Gangs of New York" with Leonardo DiCaprio, returned there after the party for a night shoot. </div> <div> Armani went back to work, preparing for his shows this Saturdayand Monday. Ferguson hopped a plane to London. Crowe, on the other hand, headed for a local disco, where--like a true rock 'n' roller--he partied till dawn. </div> <div> <I><B>______________________________________________________________________________</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>03/01/01 AUSTRALIA: ROCKIN' ROLE</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>By NUI TE KOHA</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>(C) 2001 Herald and Weekly Times Limited</B></I></div> <div> The day job pays $15 million a go, but Russell Crowe is doing the night-shift, writes NUI TE KOHA THEY have abandoned rehearsal yet again to work on some fresh material.</div> <div> "A band should stay open, and explore what might be," Russell Crowe says. It sounds like the Thirty <I>Odd Foot of Grunts</I> lead singer has just announced the band's unofficial motto.</div> <div> Crowe suggests a wistful cloud-watching ditty called Big Jet Planes before his band tiptoe into an acoustic intro for All the White Circles. They emerge at the other end behind a wall of churning guitars.</div> <div> "We've never had that level of concentration before," Crowe says later.</div> <div> He is serious about his work, whether it's for the $15 million-a-film he gets for his day job of movie star or the comparative pennies for a night gig, he's equally passionate.</div> <div> Crowe says that whatever the medium, it requires focus and a willingness to be exposed.</div> <div> "It requires the same willingness to give over to it.</div> <div> "The difference is, the cerebral journey of the film is like the things you plan in your loungeroom. Then you get to the set and try certain things, and you work on a journey that's all in your head, and all in your imagination.</div> <div> "Twelve months later, I'll sit in a room with people and see if that emotional arc I worked on is being followed. The songs are about ... throwing everything up in the air and seeing how it goes."</div> <div> At the risk of oversimplifying Crowe's leap to Hollywood stardom, and step up to musical professionalism, he's always seemed like the Accidental Artist. He's the guy who took opportunity, self-belief and a rationale that every experience counts, and turned it into something good.</div> <div> Crowe was a high-school kid in Auckland, New Zealand, when he began toying with musical identities including Rigor Mortis and the Stiffs, the Profile, Dave Deceit and the Interrogators.</div> <div> But it wasn't until that country's best-known 1950s revivalist, Tommy Sharplin, renamed Crowe "Russ Le Roc" and extended an invitation to play under that moniker that it all took shape.</div> <div> Crowe, then juggling jobs as an insurance salesman and bouncer, jumped at it.</div> <div> "I was like: `That'll do. That's close enough to being an entertainer'," he says.</div> <div> "The weirdest thing was, I did it for three years and I became an expert at playing 1950s music. It was dribbling out of my f ... ing ears! But I found it really fulfilling." SOON after, in 1984, he met guitarist Dean Cochran, setting in motion a trip that led to Thirty <I>Odd Foot of Grunts</I>.</div> <div> As for acting, Crowe says: "I didn't pick the medium. The medium somehow reached out and picked me. I thought the best I could ever do was aim for a lead role of an Arthur Miller production for the Sydney Theatre Company at the Sydney Opera House.</div> <div> "That was the ideal when I was a young fella finishing school: `Working in Melbourne, that'd be cool, but then, working at a theatre production at the Sydney Opera House, that's the thing!' "</div> <div> Of course, Crowe's two Oscar nominations say the dream went way beyond a seaside stage in Sydney. It's made the lyricist in Crowe even more compelling.</div> <div> The new Grunts album, Bastard Life or Clarity, is about choices, good and bad.</div> <div> It also comes at a life-changing moment for Crowe, who, having established himself as a highly competent and bankable star, is now more comfortable with the journey, not the chase.</div> <div> "If you want to work with the people you can learn from - the great directors, the auteurs - you've got to commit yourself completely to it," Crowe says.</div> <div> "And that's a massive amount of commitment. That's a weird life thing - like never having been to a funeral or wedding of any of my friends. I went to Michael Douglas's wedding (to Catherine Zeta-Jones). And I was sitting there and realised that's the first wedding I've actually attended.</div> <div> "I've nipped in and caught somebody at the end of a 21st or an engagement party, but I miss a whole lot of that other stuff. For me, that's OK."</div> <div> As Bastard Life or Clarity attests, Crowe has made choices, good and bad.</div> <div> There are relationship songs - most notably Hold You and Swept Away Bayou (Facing the Headlights Alone) - which may, or may not, be about Meg Ryan. Crowe worked with and romanced Ryan while shooting the just-released movie, Proof of Life.</div> <div> "To see somebody that you are instantly attracted to, on a number of different levels, you should enjoy that," he says.</div> <div> "You don't have to discuss it with anybody, or bring it to anybody's attention, but why not just allow yourself the experience - even if the situation is incorrect?"</div> <div> Crowe's affair with Ryan turned the couple into the most-hunted celebrity couple this side of Tom and Nicole.</div> <div> Crowe concedes the "spite and malice" occasionally "cut" him.</div> <div> "They cut because that's what they are designed to do. They are designed to draw blood," Crowe says.</div> <div> "It's the conversations you have with your aunts, your niece, and your old mate up in Queensland you haven't seen for a while: `Mate, did you do that?' That's when it becomes tedious.</div> <div> "But I get my time off, man. I come home and get my time off on horseback, with the dogs.</div> <div> "I get all that, man. I still get to do these other things to stay sane. I get to wake up with the sun, I get to walk around under the trees." DOES Crowe know - given the strength of his roles in The Insider and Gladiator - he is one of the acting greats?</div> <div> He doesn't answer the question directly.</div> <div> "I know that if I sleep less, get up as soon as I can in the morning, if I learn my lines back to front and upside down, if I examine the character, I can get somewhere near doing something good.</div> <div> "I really love giving over to the medium. I really love getting involved in it. I really love riding horses in exotic locations, galloping over an almost lunar landscape in Morocco for a living," he laughs. "Thank you." Bastard Life or Clarity out now. Proof of Life opens today.</div> <div> <I><B>_____________________________________________________________________________</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>03/1/01 USA: JUST FOR VARIETY</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>By ARMY ARCHERD</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Herald Sun</B></I></div> <div> RUSSELL CROWE SHIFTED FROM TOGA to casual wear as he entertained the fashion world for Milan's fashion week when he fronted his group, <I>Thirty </I><I>Odd Foot of Grunts</I>, in a benefit concert at the Rolling Stone Club, hosted by Giorgio Armani. (Guess what Crowe will wear to the Oscars?) He is lead singer and guitarist of the group, which plays, as he described it, "narrative-based songs that have a connection with reality." (?) The celeb-packed audience at Armani's party included Sarah Ferguson; proceeds of the evening went to her charity Children in Crisis. Crowe and the band played "Somebody Else's Princess" and he dedicated it to her. They played again Tuesday night at the San Remo Italian music fest. He and group continued on to perform.</div> <div> <I><B>_____________________________________________________________________________</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>02/28/01 UK: THE SINGING GLADIATOR</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Daily Variety</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>(c) SMG Newspapers Ltd</B></I></div> <div> Gladiator star Russell <I>Crowe</I> has stepped back into the arena for another fight.</div> <div> But this time around he's wielding a guitar and joining forces with fashion designer Giorgio Armani to combat childhood poverty.</div> <div> <I>Crowe</I> and his Australian folk-rock <I>band</I> Thirty Odd Foot of Grunt travelled to Italy to raise funds for Children in Crisis Italy, which supports two Milan organisations that provide homes and care for children who are victims of family violence and abuse.</div> <div> "Last year the <I>band</I> did a concert in Austin, Texas, that raised money for a community clinic and we think it's really important to do this type of thing," <I>Crowe</I> said before the concert, on Monday night.</div> <div> Children in Crisis Italy is part of an international charity organisation founded in 1993 by the Duchess of York, who was also a guest at the concert.</div> <div> <I>Crowe</I>, whose starring role in Gladiator won him shouts of "Ciao, Gladiatore!" on a recent visit to Rome, has been singing with Thirty Odd Foot of Grunt since 1984.</div> <div> <I><B>_____________________________________________________________________________</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>03/1/01 UK: </B></I><I><B>CROWE</B></I><I><B> THE GLADIATOR TRIES HIS HAND AT ROCK MUSIC (AT LEAST HE LOOKS THE PART, ANYWAY)</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>NORTHERN ECHO </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>(c) Copyright Express Newspapers 2001</B></I></div> <div> RUSSELL <I>Crowe</I> is not content with his status as the world's hottest male actor - now he wants to be one of its hottest rock stars, too.</div> <div> The brawny Gladiator star, currently appearing alongside his erstwhile girlfriend Meg Ryan in the kidnap drama Proof of Life, was strutting his stuff at Italy's San Remo Music Festival yesterday.</div> <div> Alongside <I>Crowe</I> were his <I>band</I>, the mystifyingly named Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts. Their forthcoming album has the equally strange title of B****** Life Or Clarity. "We've spent the last 12 months rehearsing and writing," said <I>Crowe</I>. "We have 18 brand new songs. At the moment my favourite track is one called Other Ways Of Speaking, which I wrote about Jodie Foster."</div> <div> With his long hair, stubble and Bono-style wraparound dark glasses, <I>Crowe</I> looked every inch the rocker.</div> <div> <I><B>_____________________________________________________________________________</B></I></div> <div> <I><B><IMG SRC="65c2cb40.jpg" border=0 width="300" height="180" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Tuesday, 27 February, 2001, 12:25 GMT </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>BBC article</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Gladiator star gigs for charity</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Armani with Crowe and the band in Milan on Monday</B></I></div> <div> New Zealand-born actor Russell Crowe and his folk-rock band Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts gave a concert in Milan on Monday to raise funds for the Italian charity Children in Crisis. </div> <div> Crowe, who starred in the Roman film epic Gladiator, has been singing with the band since 1984. </div> <div> Children in Crisis provides care for victims of family violence and abuse, and was founded by fashion designer Giorgio Armani, who was pivotal in getting Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts on stage. </div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="156" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 41 WIDTH="152"><div> Gladiator: Likely to win best film Oscar</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> "Giorgio found a charity which is to help kids in Milan, not a charity that passes money in other countries, " said Crowe. "It wouldn't have really happened without Giorgio Armani." </div> <div> Crowe added: "We think it's really important to do this kind of thing." </div> <div> The band has done other concerts for charity in the past and their new album, Bastard Life or Clarity, was released in Australia on Monday. </div> <div> Before this expansion the band's music was only available through its website. </div> <div> <B>Alternative career </B></div> <div> Speaking of his alternative career as a rock star, Crowe said: </div> <div> "When I work in a movie, I feel the needs of a character. When I sing songs I write, I'm talking about things that happen in my life, not in a fantasy life on the screen." </div> <div> The band plays an eclectic variety of roots music. </div> <div> "We describe our music as being folk music," Crowe explained, adding that they have a variety of influences, from the songwriters of the 60s to "a little bit of Elvis Presley some Doors and some Tom Jones". </div> <div> <B>Flattered</B> </div> <div> Though Gladiator won the best film category at the Golden Globes, and a Bafta earlier in the week, Crowe has not earned best actor titles from Bafta, the Golden Globes or the New York or LA critics. </div> <div> His current release, Proof of Life, has drawn more attention as the off-screen romance with co-star Meg Ryan than it has for its box-office. </div> <div> But for the moment Crowe, who starred to great acclaim in the tobacco whistle-blower movie The Insider, is sticking to film. </div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="156" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 41 WIDTH="152"><div> Russell Crowe: Actor and rock star</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> He is next to play the schizophrenic mathematics genius John Forbes Nash Jr, who won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994 for his work on games theory. </div> <div> Asked about his Oscar nomination for best actor, Crowe was nonchalant. </div> <div> "In terms of its importance for the industry, I am very flattered," he said. </div> <div> "But do I covet an Oscar? Do I search for one in my life? No." </div> <div> <I><B>___________________________________________________________________________</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>02/25/01 AUSTRALIA: 30 ODD FOOT OF GRUNTS</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>(C) 2001 Advertiser Newspapers Limited</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>REUTERS NEWS SERVICE</B></I></div> <div> 30 Odd Foot of Grunt: Bastard Life Or Clarity (Gruntland)</div> <div> The band name may sound a little strange but its lead singer, Russell Crowe, is no stranger.</div> <div> The Academy-award nominee has made a name for himself in Hollywood but also fronts 'Grunt and says his passion for music is just as strong as his movie "day job".</div> <div> Recorded in Austin, Texas Bastard Life OR Clarity has been thrust into the Australian musical genre of Paul Kelly, Midnight Oil, Hunters and Collectors and co.</div> <div> <I><B>____________________________________________________________________________</B></I></div> <div> <I><B><IMG SRC="652b4a80.jpg" border=0 width="180" height="168" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">  <IMG SRC="654a6a70.jpg" border=0 width="166" height="167" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></I></div> <div> <I><B>02/27/2001</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Hola Spanish Magazine</B></I><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Palatino Linotype" > </FONT></div> <div> Translated into English (sorry for the poor translation)</div> <div> Australian actor Russell Crowe is without a doubt the star of the moment in Hollywood. In addition to his turbulent relation with the actress Meg Ryan and to be one of the name ones to the Oscars by his paper in the Gladiator film he causes that it appears in all the magazines and newspapers of the entire world as a value in rise of Hollywood. But, aside from its profession like actor in whom now it blunts more than ever, Crowe is a musician who, like Keanu Reeves, Brushes Willis or the very same Woody Allen is amused touching in some musical group or, even, giving small concerts in rooms jammed in it looks for more of the cinema star that of the musician. The actor, in addition, nondoubt in putting its talent to the service of solidarity. </div> <div> In this occasion, Russell Crowe next to the components of its group 30 Odd Foot of Grunts offered an exclusive concert for the Tofog foundation, children in crisis The act, organized by the fashionable designer Italian Giorgio Armani it attended like honor guest the Duchess of York, SARAH Ferguson always very tie to the subjects of aid to the childhood. The Duchess, great friend of modisto Italian, chatted animatedly next to the other guests and she was amused with the performance of Crowe. As it could not less be, Ferguson SARAH wished good luck to the actor in the next ceremony of the Oscars in which, for the second time, the Australian actor will go in quality of name to gain the appraised statuette like better actor.</div> <div> At the moment, like it happens to him like actor, the musical race of Russell Crowe continues and it and the 30 components of Odd Foot of Grunts, apparently, will meet the next summer in Austin, Texas, to record what will be its next album. <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#333399" FACE="Palatino Linotype" ><I><B>___________________________________________________________________________</B></I></FONT></div> <div> <I><B>02/26/2001 3:27 PM ET</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>'Gladiator' Crowe And Armani Join Up for Charity </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>By: Jennifer Clark </B></I><I><B> MILAN (Reuters)</B></I></div> <div> ``Gladiator'' star Russell Crowe is back in the arena for another fight -- but this time around he's wielding a guitar and joining forces with fashion designer Giorgio Armani to </div> <div> combat childhood poverty. Crowe and his Australian folk-rock band Thirty Odd Foot of Grunt are in Italy to raise funds for Children in Crisis Italy, which supports </div> <div> two Milan organizations that provide homes and care for children who </div> <div> are victims of family violence and abuse. ``Last year the band did a concert in Austin, Texas, that raised money for a community clinic and we think it's really important to do </div> <div> this type of thing,'' Crowe told reporters a few hours before a concert planned for Milan on Monday night. ``Giorgio Armani found a charity here which is similar because it </div> <div> helps kids here in Milan and doesn't pass the money to other countries. It wouldn't have happened without Giorgio.'' Children in Crisis Italy is the Italian chapter of an international charity organization founded in 1993 by Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of </div> <div> York, who was due to attend the concert. Armani has made a large donation, and organizers are hoping that Italian celebrities attending the concert will do the same.</div> <div> Crowe, whose starring role in ``Gladiator'' won him shouts of ''Ciao, Gladiatore!'' on a recent visit to Rome, has been singing with <B>Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts</B> since 1984.</div> <div> ``When I work in a movie, I fill the needs of a character,'' he said when asked if he feels more like an actor or a musician. ``When I sing songs I write, I'm talking about things that happen in my life, not in a fantasy life on the screen.'' The band's new album, Bastard Life or Clarity, was released in Australia on Monday. Prior to the new album, available in stores in Australia and New Zealand, the band's music was only available through the Internet on its Web Site. In his next film, Crowe will play a schizophrenic mathematics genius, </div> <div> John Forbes Nash Jr., who in 1994 won the Nobel Prize for economics for his work on games theory. Crowe said he is already reading up for the role and studying </div> <div> mathematics. ``I'm staring up at a huge mountain,'' he said when describing what </div> <div> it was like to prepare for a role that will call on him to portray both a schizophrenic and a mathematical genius. ``This guy out-thought the disease and cured himself without </div> <div> medication,'' Crowe said. </div> <div> _____________________________________________________________________________</div> <div> <I><B>02/25/01 AUSTRALIA: GLADIATOR SLAYS THEM</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>SUNDAY HERALD SUN </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>(C) 2001 Herald and Weekly Times Limited </B></I></div> <div> INSIDER has been dying to tell you he sat at the adjacent table to, almost rubbing shoulders with, Gladiator star Russell Crowe (below), at the Allan Border Medal. Crowe and his band, <B>30 </B><I><B>Odd Foot Of Grunts</B></I>, performed their single, Things Have Got To Change, during the Nine coverage. Before he arrived with the band, referred to by warm-up man Michael Pope as the "30 foot grunt people", Insider was contemplating what their music might sound like. Actually, they were surprisingly OK, with Crowe's voice being a highlight. But Crowe and "the grunts" were not a big drawcard outside the Crown ballroom. The special live web site Nine set up for their gig only recorded a fraction over 7000 hits up to 48 hours after the show. Crowe, on the other hand, was a hit on the night. His genuine love for cricket - he organised a match on Malta during the filming of Gladiator, flying in cricketing Kiwi cousins Jeff and Martin Crowe - shone through in his interview with Eddie McGuire. Allan Border Medal executive producer Cos Cardone told Insider the man was a delight. "He even arranged for a team photo, taken during the Gladiator match, to be retrieved from his mum's lounge room wall so we could use it during the telecast."</div> <div> _____________________________________________________________________________<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#333399" FACE="Palatino Linotype" ><I><B><IMG SRC="61096830.jpg" border=0 width="150" height="131" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></I></FONT></div> <div> <I><B>02/25/2001 Sanremo Festival - TOFOG</B></I></div> <div> <I>Okay so my Italian isn't good. It down right sucks, so I went to </I><A HREF="http://www.systranlinks.com/systran/cgi" target="_blank" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.systranlinks.com/systran/cgi""><U><I>S</I></U></A><A HREF="http://www.systranlinks.com/systran/cgi" target="_blank" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.systranlinks.com/systran/cgi""><U><I>ystran</I></U></A><I> translator to find out what was said.</I></div> <div> <B>English: Russell Crowe host of the Festival:</B></div> <div> Russell Crowe to 51mo the Festival di Sanremo  The protagonist of the</div> <div> film " the gladiatore ", for which better actor is candidate to</div> <div> the Oscar, will be on the stage of the Ariston Theatre in the second</div> <div> evening, 27 tuesdays February, and the " Thirty odd foot of Grunts "</div> <div> will be exhibited with its band.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Italian: </B><B>Russell Crowe ospite del Festival:</B></div> <div> Russell Crowe al 51mo Festival di Sanremo.</div> <div> Il protagonista del film "Il gladiatore", per il quale è candidato all'oscar quale migliore attore, sarà sul palcoscenico del Teatro Ariston nella seconda serata, martedì 27 febbraio, e si esibirà con la sua band i "Thirty odd foot of Grunts"</div> <div> ______________________________________________________________________________</div> <div> <I><B>02/24/01 AUSTRALIA: CROWE'S FLYING AROUND WORLD TO MAXIMUS </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>By NATALIE SIKORA and JO CASAMENTO</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>(C) 2001 Herald and Weekly Times Limited</B></I></div> <div> It was a challenge fit for a Gladiator - attend two film premieres in two cities in one night.</div> <div> And Oscar-nominated Russell Crowe proved he was up to it last night to promote his new film Proof of Life.</div> <div> The jetsetting actor began his whirlwind 30-hour stopover in Australia yesterday in Sydney.</div> <div> He sauntered down the red carpet at 6.45pm in front of hundreds of screaming fans, before walking straight out of the back exit while guests, including Tania Zaetta, Susie Maroney, Ben Mendelsohn and Deni Hines stayed to view the movie.</div> <div> Crowe then went to the airport where he boarded a private jet to do the red carpet honors at the Rivoli Cinemas in Camberwell.</div> <div> Traffic was brought to a standstill as hundreds of fans crammed the footpath waiting for the star of the night to arrive.</div> <div> They cheered as guests including Cathy Freeman and her husband Sandy Boedecker, Neighbours star Krista Vendy, AFL footballer Garry Lyon, self-proclaimed witch Fiona Horne, Belinda Emmett and Rove McManus and Derryn Hinch made their way through the barricades.</div> <div> Crowe is to attend a press conference this morning at the Park Hyatt before boarding another plane for London so he can make it in time for the British Academy of Film and Television Awards on Sunday night - for which he is nominated in the best actor category for his role as Maximus in Gladiator.</div> <div> <I>"Then I head to Milan on Monday where we (his band </I><I><B>30 </B></I><I><B>Odd Foot of Grunts</B></I><I>) perform at both Milan Fashion Week and then the San Remo music festival on Tuesday," he said.</I></div> <div> <I>"Two of the songs will be televised throughout Europe and then I have to go back to work (on his next film)."</I></div> <div> Crowe also said he was not going to do the usual round of Oscar promotions, admitting he "can't do that political thing required of me".</div> <div> "I've done the movie, I've done the selling around the world so whatever happens, happens."</div> <div> He said he was looking forward to the Oscars, although his niece would not be his date this year.</div> <div> "Once is enough - it was a heavy experience for me last year because I got to see it through her eyes so it was a little less tedious for me."</div> <div> ______________________________________________________________________________</div> <div> <B>02/22/2001</B></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.austin360.com/statesman/editions/thursday/xlent_4.html" target="_blank" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.austin360.com/statesman/editi"><U><B>STATESMAN NEWSPAPER</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>STREET SHORTS</B> </div> <div> Street Soundz </div> <div> <I>By Chris Riemenschneider</I></div> <div> American-Statesman Staff</div> <div> Attention Crowe-Mart shoppers: Waterloo Records is getting in a shipment of Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts CDs early next week, and it might be the only place besides Gruntland.com to get your hands on the album that Russell Crowe and Co. recorded in Austin last summer. Waterloo owner John Kunz says the band doesn't have a U.S. distributor yet, but they didn't want their Austin fans to have to wait. . . . Tuesday saw the unveiling of a Texas Grammy-winners exhibit at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The display, which will be up through May, includes items belonging to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Doug Sahm and Shawn Colvin. . . . Overheard at the Dio show at the Back Room on Saturday: "At least when the singer names the band after himself, you know he'll be here." It seems the Ratt gig two days earlier at the Metro featured only an original guitarist and drummer. Both shows boasted capacity crowds. </div> <div> From Sue (fellow Grunt fan):</div> <div> Also, advise all in Grunt family to tune in to KGSR via the internet for the morning show (5:30 am - 9:00 am Central Standard Time - US). Kevin at KGSR radio in Austin talked about the BLOC release this morning on his show. Good chance he will play something from the CD, possibly Monday or Tuesday for the CD's official release (but listen all week, because Kevin is waiting for the station to receive its copy of BLOC). Remember, Kevin and KGSR was the only local media type in Austin granted an interview by RC for Stubbs shows, and he played some of TOFOG's songs during that interview. </div> <div> ______________________________________________________________________________</div> <div> <I><B>Part One - Andrew Denton Morning Program</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Triple M, Sydney, Broadcast Monday, February 19, 2001</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Transcribed by Anne Rawley</B></I></div> <div> <B>To listen go </B><A HREF="http://www.angelfire.com/band/tofogsworld/videos/Denton02192001part1.ra" target="_blank" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.angelfire.com/band/tofogsworl"><U><B>here</B></U></A><B>.</B></div> <bR> <div> About ten minutes before the 8 a.m. news update, Russell's voiceover came on:</div> <bR> <div> "I am Russell Crowe and you are listening to the Andrew Denton Show, which believe it or not, features Andrew Denton."</div> <bR> <div> AD: Eighteen minutes to nine, now, last week we interviewed Russell Crowe, this interview was "embargoed" which means we couldn't play it until today because his new film opens later this week. Do you get the connection?</div> <bR> <div> Andrea: Why are you talking to us like children?</div> <bR> <div> AD: I have no idea.  Russell Crowe, or as we like to call him "Russ Le Roq" [sound of dialing] On the line, internationally renowned rock star Russ Le Roq, Good morning Russ [Andrea giggles in background]</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: [in a drawling posh English accent] Good morning Andrew Denton, how are you ?</I></div> <bR> <div> AD: Also known as Russell Crowe, how are ya Russ?</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: Cheers mate</I></div> <bR> <div> Andrea: Russ Le Roq, where did this come from?</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: Uhm, well it was..... I was 16 at the time, and it was kind of like a nickname that was given me.... I was working in a night club called "King Creole" which is a ....for those of you that know these things is the title of an Elvis Presley movie....so the night club dealt specifically in 1950s rock'n'roll and uh everybody in the nightclub had a nickname, and I was only 16 and what did I know?</I></div> <bR> <div> AD: You were Russ Le Roq.  What did you wear?</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: Uhm....like, silver winkle pickers, stovepipe trousers....uhm, uhm, cowboy string ties, and uh Edwardian jacket.</I></div> <bR> <div> Andrea: Forget that, what was the hair like?</div> <bR> <div> AD: It's the quizz of the ....</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: Now that is really bad.  Do you remember Brian Setzer from the Stray Cats? [AD: Yeah; Andrea: aw no]. ... well you take hair like that right, and you inject it with steroids [AD: Aw god,] So, ...it, yeah [AD: actually you'll have someone's eye out with that] Actually, what was that Russian thing....the cowboys from .....</I></div> <bR> <div> Andrea: Oh yeah, Leningrad Cowboys</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: Yeah, something like that.</I></div> <bR> <div> AD: Dearie me.  You ... were actually a busker , you busked for a while too, what sort of stuff did you do busk?</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: Mainly rock'n'roll stuff actually.  [AD: Yeah?] Yeah, and then a little later on I went into sort of films, but when ... when I did that, that was with Dean Cochran who's the guitarist in Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts, we've been playing together since 1984, uhm, yeah, it was mainly King's Cross, Martin Place, Circular Quay, and we'd  do like a little 15 minute rock'n'roll set, because nobody expected that, you know, you don't walk past buskers and expect them to be doing 'Johnny Be Good' ya know.</I></div> <bR> <div> AD: No, I expected you to be in white face, miming walking against the wind, or something like that,...</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: Or playing Bob Dylan songs [sound effect from Russell - "wahhhhhhhhhh"] But you know we'd do this little set, and if we didn't get stopped by the police before the 15 minute mark, it had a great crescendo and we would cream it money wise, absolutely cream it.</I></div> <bR> <div> Andrea: Now you ...[trying to ask question ]</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: We actually stopped traffic a few too many times and that's when the police, up at King's Cross particularly, didn't uh, uh, they didn't appreciate it.</I></div> <bR> <div> Andrea: You've described some of your earliest recordings as the worst recordings in the history of New Zealand music industry [RC: uh huh I hold some of the lowest spots, or the top of the lowest] What were some of the songs?</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: Uh, "I Just Want to Be Like Marlon Brando" is pretty crappy, uhm, there's another one which I think there was only ever a couple of hundred pressed of 'cause the record company really thought it sucked to, called "Pier 13" which is just rubbish [Andrea giggling in the background] but remember ya know, you've got to put it in context, remember my age, and the..this is my excuse anyway, it took a lot of courage to be that bad.  A lot of courage."</I></div> <bR> <div> Overvoice: Triple M</div> <bR> <div> AD: Tomorrow we'll talk to Russell about the age old question, we have a bit of an argument, don't we, what's best, being a movie star or a rock star?</div> <bR> <div> Andrea: Oh, I'm still arguing with myself about all that stuff.</div> <bR> <div> AD: That's why you're a radio star .. It's 14 minutes to 8."</div> <div> <B>End of Part 1</B></div> <div> ______________________________________________________________________________</div> <div> <I><B>Part Two - Andrew Denton Morning Program</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Triple M, Sydney, Broadcast Tuesday, February 20, 2001</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Transcribed by Anne Rawley</B></I></div> <div> <B>AD = Andrew Denton</B></div> <div> <B>AK = Amanda Keller</B></div> <div> <B>RC = Russell Crowe</B></div> <bR> <div> AD: At 20 to 8 on the new Triple M, Russell Crowe, we got an exclusive interview with him last week, it was embargoed til this week for reasons we can no longer recall, and uhh, yesterday we spoke to Russell about...what did we speak to Russell about?</div> <bR> <div> AK: About being Russ Le Roq</div> <bR> <div> AD: That's right, Russ Le Roq the rock star</div> <bR> <div> AK: Yeah, but with the Big Flock of Seagulls hair</div> <bR> <div> AD: As the conversation went on, Russ and I got into a very heated argument well, you be the judge [sound of dialing]</div> <bR> <div> AK: We call you an Australian, and obviously Kiwis like to claim you as one of theirs, so here's the test Russell,  Wallabys are playing the All Blacks, are you Australian or a Kiwi?</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: [loud voice - Ah Ringa Paakia Hei Ka Mate].....uh, sorry I don't know what happened, had some kind of interruption on the telephone line</I></div> <bR> <div> AD: You had a seizure </div> <bR> <div> AK: Well it answers the question</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: Now listen, I've lived in Australia 24 of my 36 years [AD: yeah] some of them, you know, 10 years when I was in primary school, and uh, basically from the age of 22 til now, It's my choice to live in Australia, my developing years were in Australia, and uhm, but at the same time, New Zealand's only just over the road mate, you know, so I'm not going to deny New Zealand either, and I think everybody that lives in the South Pacific should just calm down 'cause there's only two countries here [AD: well, hey ] you know, [AD: Don't forget Stewart Island] and I'm part of the Tasman Sea and proud of it.</I></div> <bR> <div> AD: Look we know you have a choice of countries and we thank you for choosing ours Russell, we appreciate it</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: [laughs] </I></div> <bR> <div> [sound of dialing]</div> <bR> <div> AD: Which is better Russ, is it being a movie star or a rock star</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: Andrew, I'm a creative artist and I work in a number of different mediums and you know this, we've had this argument.raging.....for like ..one is more cerebral and the other is just pure atavism Andrew [drops into American accent] it's the primal part of me.</I></div> <bR> <div> AD: So rock'n'roll wins, eh</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: I think..... I think [AK: He's looking for  an answer here I think] I think as a Roman Caesar once said 'One needs both for your health [in a Royal Shakespearean company voice]</I></div> <bR> <div> AD: Fair enough</div> <bR> <div> AK: Have you played in any scary venues like behind the chicken wire kind of an arrangement</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: Uhm, when we used to play uh, when we used to tour New Zealand it was kinda funky because we'd go into the foresting towns  and uhm, it would be cool as long as the gangs didn't turn up, ya know and that was...it was kind of a real... it was a bit of the roll of the dice ya know, so we've been in a venue and we've had like 150 people playing to and we're thinking, oh yeah, we can do this, and we're playing along and then halfway through the show 150 blokes come in with their patches on and it just changes the nature of the evening</I></div> <bR> <div> AD: Just a little bit, yeah, it was  like that in my boy scouts troop, it was always like that.  You've actually toured in the Tarago with the rest of the Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts, what are you like as a touring band?  I mean I had imagined you in a bus, like the true rock'n'roll band [AK: Partridge Family bus] </div> <bR> <div> AD: Yeah, with the bed up the back and so on, what's it like in the Tarago?</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC:Very smelly, it's very smelly, particularly after a couple of days, uhm, yeah it gets a little stinky</I></div> <bR> <div> [Triple M]</div> <div> End of Part 2</div> <div> AD: Tomorrow Russ reveals how he knocked back $25 million bucks to star in a movie.</div> <div> ______________________________________________________________________________</div> <div> <I><B>Part Three - Andrew Denton Morning Program</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Triple M, Sydney, Broadcast Weds, February 21, 2001</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Transcribed by Anne Rawley</B></I></div> <div> <B>AD = Andrew Denton</B></div> <div> <B>AK = Amanda Keller</B></div> <div> <B>RC = Russell Crowe</B></div> <bR> <div> AD: It's ten minutes to eight and time to continue our exclusive interview with Oscar-winning rather Oscar-nominated rather, Russell Crowe. His new movie Proof Life opens this Friday</div> <bR> <div> AK: This is the film he did with Meg Ryan</div> <bR> <div> AD: Uhm, </div> <bR> <div> AK: Say no more</div> <bR> <div> AD: Here it is, ah continuing our chat with Russell Crowe and the whole business of earning a bloody fortune as a movie star [sound of dialing]</div> <bR> <div> AD: You have a guitar collection, do you have any that go up to 11?</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: Uhm that's amplifiers Andrew but thanks ...thanks for doing your research [AK -laughs]</I></div> <bR> <div> AD: I have a guitar that goes up to 11, I do honestly, no I have a xylophone that goes up to 11</div> <bR> <div> AK: How 'bout a tennis racket that you loaned me that goes up to 11</div> <bR> <div> AD: That's right, yeah.  How does it feel Russ to know that the next time you walk out the door professionally you're going to make at least $10,000,000 bucks, that must be amazing?</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: It's actually higher than that [AD: higher than that, but how does it feel to know] the market rate is higher than but that's not what I take for a movie, you know I just signed on , I mean all the people that represent me think I'm absolutely insane but they've thought for ten years so it doesn't matter, but you know uhm, I turned down every major studio with a big ticket and one was I think $25,000,000 US and I just read the script and I just couldn't do it. and uh so I'm doing a much smaller film with Ron Howard, called "A Beautiful Mind" where I play a schizophrenic mathematician</I></div> <bR> <div> AD: Right....</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: So, uh ya know it doesn't really matter the dollars got nothing to do with it and I know that sounds kind of funny from this position but it's the same way I was 20 years ago and uh, that hasn't changed.</I></div> <bR> <div> AK:  Your life has completely uhn blown out of the stratosphere in terms of we're reading about you all the time, are you having a fun ride?</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: Well, that's somebody else's life that you keep reading about ...I mean [AK: he's have a great time] I read that stuff and go 'wow this bloke's [laugh] is having a ball'</I></div> <bR> <div> AD: Well let's talk about that bloke because as far as I can tell, not that I actually keep score but it seems to me that other Russell Crowe [RC: a right rooter? isn't' he- laughs uproariously- you're hopeless ] has gone to bed with everyone in Hollywood.  Is there anyone that Russell Crowe hasn't gone to bed with?</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: Uhm, well there's a few more you know if you just get out the telephone directory</I></div> <bR> <div> AK: Bette Midler</div> <bR> <div> AD: Katherine Hepburn nodded off  but that was about the only , now do you have a, uh I mean when you become a sex symbol and I'm sorry to use that expression but that's apparently what you've become, do you have an agent that just looks after that side of it for you.  Russell I've arranged for you to apparently sleep with so and so on Tuesday and then Wednesday you're having an affair with X?</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC:  Mate, now you're talking about your life </I></div> <bR> <div> AD: Yeah, thanks Russ, thanks for knowing</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: The wild life of a radio star</I></div> <bR> <div> AD: It never stops</div> <bR> <div> Voiceover: Triple M</div> <div> ______________________________________________________________________________</div> <div> <I><B>Crowe at the crossroads</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Herald Sun, Edition 1 - FIRSTSAT 17 FEB 2001</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>By: NUI TE KOHA</B></I></div> <div> He calls himself the master of unrequited love and says he sacrificed his relationship with Meg Ryan for life Down Under. NUI TE KOHA spends a day on the road with actor and musician Russell Crowe</div> <div> LIFE is sometimes easily boxed.</div> <div> Or so Russell Crowe discovered when his film career began fast-tracking six years ago and the accumulated spoils and accolades of the job had to be shipped from Hollywood to home -- a farm in northern New South Wales.</div> <div> ``When I first bought that property, I lived in a caravan for three years,'' Crowe says.</div> <div> ``I let my parents move into the little house and eventually I built some stuff . . . and there's an office there for me now. And six years of stuff came out of boxes and bags, and got stuck on shelves and put on walls.</div> <div> ``I sat in a chair and looked at this wall and it was covered in all these things. Very tastefully, mind you,'' he chuckles.</div> <div> ``And I had this perspective. I wasn't chasing anything. I was in the middle of it: the thing I had been looking for in terms of getting myself to a platform of being able to do work of the highest calibre in a medium I had chosen to work in.</div> <div> ``Here I am,'' Crowe says without a hint of pretence or ego.</div> <div> ``I can take a little bit more time. I can take a deeper breath because it's not the pursuit any more, it's the journey.</div> <div> ``To sit back and look at that wall -- and this happened only recently -- it was like, `OK, I can relax a little bit. I still have to work as hard, but I don't have to work on getting the work.''</div> <div> Crowe, 36 -- actor, musician and, more recently, a man oddly famous for being in love with Meg Ryan -- is at one of life's crossroads.</div> <div> There's no crisis, retirement plan or pangs of regret. He simply wants to make more time for himself after throwing much heart and soul into the ``day job'', Crowe's own downbeat term for his incredibly successful acting career.</div> <div> ``It's not about being selfish,'' he says. ``You have to be prepared to do something for yourself. Now and then you have to let yourself off the hook in terms of responsibility.''</div> <div> And, in a nice twist to the Crowe enigma, lately it's been the musician inside the talented actor who's bared his soul most on the tricky subject of life's checks and balances.</div> <div> Bastard Life or Clarity, the latest album from Crowe's band, Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts, is about choices, good and bad.</div> <div> In a revealing journey of broken relationships, haunted pasts, sacrifices, real-life people and tragedies, Crowe's characters shift between hope and hopelessness.</div> <div> Personally, Crowe, an Oscar-nominated actor and one of this country's most critically acclaimed thespians, says he chose clarity over a bastard life a long time ago.</div> <div> ``I don't think I could do the job I do and include all the things I do in my life without a certain degree of clarity.</div> <div> ``However, volume of work will always block out certain views. I do get fairly busy.'' He smiles at the obvious understatement.</div> <div> If the Russell Crowe success story could be described in one sentence it might go something like this: unwavering self-belief, perseverance and a willingness to start from the bottom.</div> <div> ``I was petrified as a young fella because I didn't have a certificate from NIDA,'' Crowe recalls. ``I didn't have something official that said I studied this art form, I studied this craft.</div> <div> ``I thought the only way to combat this is you just do as much as you can, you do work in as many mediums as you can, you do everything until you've learned from that.</div> <div> ``So I did what I could for it, whether it was a training film for the Seventh Day Adventist Church, a television commercial or just stuff to get in front of the camera.</div> <div> ``You don't get there unless you go back to square one and say: `This is what I want to do, and I am a student of whatever comes.' ''</div> <div> He was six years old when the music bug hit as hard as the acting one.</div> <div> He got a guitar in 1970. His parents bought it, ``one of those mid-size, teeny-weeny ones, but it was still gigantic for me''.</div> <div> ``I found out immediately it was a way to express myself, even without guitar lessons.''</div> <div> Continued Next Page</div> <div> From Previous Page</div> <div> Crowe juggled with several musical identities amid a receptive and supportive new wave scene in Auckland, New Zealand, in the 1980s.</div> <div> In 1984 he met guitarist Dean Cochran and formed the band Roman Antics. It was the start of an ever-changing musical trip that eventually led the partnership to Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts.</div> <div> We are in a recording studio in South Yarra for a day-night session of rehearsal and jamming. The band, who haven't played together since last August, power through tracks from the new album, a set list for a gig and new songs.</div> <div> Cochran extracts eerie guitar feels on an old song, The River, while the band -- Dave Wilkins (guitar), Garth Adam (bass), Dave Kelly (drums), Stewart Kirwan (trumpet) and Crowe -- reduced to a hush, watch excitedly.</div> <div> ``There's a power that happens when we walk into that room,'' Crowe says later. ``It's so cool.</div> <div> ``We walk back in and it feels like it's better than the last time. That's been happening consistently for seven years.''</div> <div> CROWE is serious about this music thing. Always has been. But outside, perceptions of who he is in relation to the band still hound him.</div> <div> ``It's about other people seeing a commercial advantage from that,'' he says.</div> <div> ``There's also the politics, strangely, that you are not supposed to be creative in two different media for whatever reason.</div> <div> ``I think that's a strange thought process because it stands to reason that anybody who is creative per se is going to be creative in different media.''</div> <div> Crowe says he was especially bemused when broadcaster Andrew Denton recently asked why the actor wanted ``two bites of the cherry''.</div> <div> ``How is it that you see it that way?'' Crowe asked. ``How is it that's the perspective you have? If that's what it comes down to, it's sad . . . because it's about the songs.</div> <div> ``If you don't roll your eyes and just listen to the songs, you will hear there is a reason that we do this, and that's within the songs.''</div> <div> To Crowe's chagrin, some have looked to the latest batch of lyrics for an open door to his private life and his highly publicised romance with Meg Ryan.</div> <div> ``Contextually, I don't care if it's scrutinised. Already in America they have started taking one song off the album (Wendy) and saying: `This must be about Meg because the character in the song has a boy.' ''</div> <div> (The song is actually about a woman Crowe quietly observed while he worked at a beach resort 16 years ago).</div> <div> ``People can scrutinise, whatever. Whatever the assumption is. It's silly to me that in the magazines you are put into that small, emotional box: `You must be this insensitive man thing!'</div> <div> ``But in reality, how the f... could I do my job if I was that bloke, if I was that fella? It's not possible.''</div> <div> Crowe does explain, sheepishly, the context of two ``relationship'' songs, Hold You and Swept Away Bayou (Facing the Headlights Alone): thematic opposites, of love not returned, and love connected.</div> <div> ``I'm an expert at unrequited love,'' Crowe says. ``I have, however, over a while, worked that out.</div> <div> ``It's about seeing this ideal that's unattainable, and you don't want to just throw those thoughts away.</div> <div> ``To see somebody that you are immediately attracted to on a number of different levels . . . you should enjoy that.</div> <div> ``You don't have to discuss it with anybody or bring it to anybody's attention, but why not just allow yourself the experience, even if the situation is incorrect?''</div> <div> In real life Crowe doesn't play the victim. He enjoys his lot in life and knows full well the flipside of celebrity.</div> <div> ``There are no complaints. I'm pursuing the things I've always wanted to pursue. But a separation began a while ago between me consciously in the public eye and this other thing that became this `Russell Crowe'.</div> <div> ``I look at it from this perspective and think, well, how did that happen? How did this sudden desire, this thirst for absolute rubbish, happen?</div> <div> ``You become this product.</div> <div> ``You have to have a sense of humor about it, man. The only way you combat that is through the strength of your work.''</div> <div> MISCONCEPTIONS -- there have been a few. But he doesn't care.</div> <div> ``I have a lot of routines about this s. . ., man. I got married three times this year, I had half a dozen babies, every woman I talked to I impregnated, so I've got the most fertile breath on Earth.</div> <div> ``I don't care what the misconceptions are. I'm a bad boy. I'm Lothario. Whatever, mate.</div> <div> ``At the same time all that stuff was being written, I was ear-tagging calves, so, whatever . . .''</div> <div> Crowe reveals a nifty shirt trick he brought into action at the height of the frenzy.</div> <div> ``It got to the point that wherever we went, people would be sneaking up on us with cameras -- and that's me and whoever,'' Crowe says, then giggling: ``I initially blamed Jodie Foster.</div> <div> ``So I just started wearing this shirt, which isn't popular with anyone, but I really like it. If I got to a place and hadn't really scoped it out, I just put on this shirt.''</div> <div> When photographers pounce, ``it doesn't matter what the headline says you are doing, or where they say you are doing it, if you are wearing the same clothes, the possibility of (misconceptions) is lessened in some people's minds.</div> <div> ``If you keep wearing the same shirt, a certain number of people will say (of the reports): `Oh, bulls. . .'.''</div> <div> This much is true: Crowe romanced Ryan during, and after, they worked together on the film Proof of Life.</div> <div> Asked what Ryan brought to his life, Crowe replies, in an instant: ``A lot of light, mate.</div> <div> ``Meg is a beautiful and courageous woman. I grieve the loss of her companionship, but I haven't lost her friendship.</div> <div> ``All these things that you read about us, the arguments here and there, and slamming this and that -- that's just all absolute rubbish. It's complete garbage.</div> <div> ``The bottom line is, I have a big life here. I have got to be here. When I'm off the hook with the schedules, I have to come home. I can't sustain myself through the course of the year without filling up on home.</div> <div> ``And she has the same needs. We both have huge schedules, so who knows about that sort of thing.</div> <div> ``She's a searcher. She's got an incredibly inquisitive mind, so it was very easy for us to be in the same room together for hours and hours and hours, just talking. That was very special.''</div> <div> In the studio the band, tight and firing a few hours into the session, have crossed on to wonderfully melodic ground.</div> <div> The song, Sail the Same Oceans, dedicated to actor Jack Thompson, is lyrically about Crowe removing himself from Australia and home-grown relationships in order to have a serious stab at the day job.</div> <div> These days, home equals balance.</div> <div> ``Home is my space,'' he says. ``I get to wake up in the sun, I get to walk around under the trees, I get to hang around with people who understand things without me having to re-explain myself.</div> <div> ``It's really simple things. It's rough being away from your dog for six months. That's rough stuff, man.''</div> <div> FROM Oceans the band moves to The Night Davey Hit the Train, a darker narrative based on real-life conversations with guitarist Cochran and actors Daniel Pollock and Ben Mendelsohn about suicide.</div> <div> The track is dedicated to Pollock, Crowe's co-star in Romper Stomper. Pollock was hit by a train.</div> <div> Crowe recalls an 18-year-old Cochran saying that jumping off a famous suicide bridge in Auckland would at least be something he'd have control over.</div> <div> ``You jump off,'' Crowe replied, ``but not with the point of death, with the point of life. Whatever the thing is that's going to fulfil you, you have got to go for it. It's so easy to settle for something else -- even death.''</div> <div> In a world of manufactured pop, slick productions and even the huge budgets Crowe must enjoy in his day job, Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts is an interesting proposition.</div> <div> They approach the music seriously, but thrive on the unrefined, organic feel of the room, a sort of as-is ethic.</div> <div> Crowe revels in his role as storyteller, chain-smoking his way through vivid tales of loss and gain.</div> <div> Kirwin's horn lines also lend the music a disarming edge: sometimes solemn, sometimes sexy.</div> <div> And for now, it feels like an animal that Crowe and the rest of the band can control. Happily.</div> <div> The Grunts are not signed to a record label, there are no corporate obligations, and all creative decisions are channelled through the band.</div> <div> If Crowe puts the same level of commitment into the Grunts as he does into his day job, does he want to achieve the same level of success with the music?</div> <div> ``I would really rather not,'' he says.</div> <div> ``The point is not the good or bad stuff people are saying about you. You don't drive yourself on praise, and you are not slowed down by other people's criticism.</div> <div> ``The point is the artistic expression and whether you will give yourself over to it. That's the point.'' *</div> <div> Bastard Life or Clarity is released on February 26. The first single is Things Have Got to Change. Band website: <A HREF="http://www.gruntland.com" target="_blank" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.gruntland.com" target="_blank"><U>www.gruntland.com</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>A day in the life</B></div> <div> HIS day job commands a $15 million-a-film salary, private jet travel and an army of minders.</div> <div> But Russell Crowe, musician, is a low-maintenance, highly efficient operation.</div> <div> ``There's not much glamor involved in riding around in a beat-up Tarago that smells of other blokes' feet,'' Crowe once said.</div> <div> ``I'm just one part of a band whose members all have their own story to tell. It's a real, full, deep experience.''</div> <div> Here's an overview of his schedule last week while in Melbourne.</div> <div> Saturday: Day and night rehearsal and jam session with the band.</div> <div> Sunday morning: Rehearsal for a television appearance.</div> <div> Noon: Arrive at television studio.</div> <div> 1pm: Perform.</div> <div> 2pm: Interview.</div> <div> 4pm: Takeaway souvlaki at a recording studio.</div> <div> 5pm: Rehearsal and jam session.</div> <div> 10pm: Takeaway Thai food at the studio.</div> <div> 11pm: Interview.</div> <div> 1am: Rehearsal and jam session.</div> <div> Monday morning: Rehearsal for performance at Allan Border Medal ceremony.</div> <div> 4pm: Arrive at Crown for performance.</div> <div> 9pm: Perform.</div> <div> 11pm: Road crews unload gear for unannounced show at the Mercury Lounge.</div> <div> 1am: Mercury Lounge performance.</div> <div> Tuesday: Crowe leaves Australia for the UK, via Italy, in a private jet to promote the film Proof of Life.</div> <div> By the time he returns to Australia on February 23, he would have visited the UK, parts of Europe and the US -- all for the sake of the day job.</div> <bR> <div> <B>What's on the new album</B></div> <div> Bastard Life or Clarity is about choices.</div> <div> The stories in the songs are based on real-life experiences. Crowe's characters make decisions and shift between hope and hopelessness.</div> <div> Things Have Got to Change is about relationships ``that aren't suitable''. Crowe also views it as his theme of freedom and the growing need to do things for himself.</div> <div> Memorial Day: Crowe's grandfather was a World War II veteran who refused to wear his bravery medals because the Fijian troops he fought with were not given the same recognition.</div> <div> ``He was a reticent fella,'' Crowe says, recalling a night at a Japanese restaurant when the former digger wouldn't eat rice.</div> <div> Hold You is from the self-confessed ``expert at unrequited love''. It's iconographic, according to Crowe.</div> <div> ``It's about seeing this ideal that's unattainable. To see somebody that you are immediately attracted to on a number of different levels -- you should enjoy that.''</div> <div> Sail Those Same Oceans is dedicated to actor Jack Thompson. It's about Crowe's need to take his skills offshore, but at a cost.</div> <div> ``I was in a great relationship, and getting on planes just destroyed it.''</div> <div> The Legend of Barry Kable: A homeless man guitarist Dean Cochran met while rescuing alcohol and drug-affected people on the streets of Sydney.</div> <div> Kable, it turns out, was a former Painters and Dockers Union strong-arm man.</div> <div> Somebody Else's Princess was the result of a jam session in Los Angeles. The red-haired, blue-eyed character in the first verse is a publicist who handled the Grunts' 1998-'99 tour, but elsewhere Crowe says it's a ``combination of different people''.</div> <div> Wendy is a woman Crowe observed while working on a resort island in New Zealand. She would be ``affectionate'' with guests for the stretch of her 10-day shift and, for her four days off, her son would appear, turning Wendy into the ``perfect mother''.</div> <div> The Night Davey Hit the Train is a series of conversations with Cochran and actors Daniel Pollock and Ben Mendelsohn about the same subject, suicide.</div> <div> Heroin addict Pollock, Crowe's co-star in the neo-Nazi film Romper Stomper, died when he was hit by a train in Sydney.</div> <div> ``There's that great arrogance in thinking: `There must have been something else I could have done, something else I could have said','' Crowe says.</div> <div> Swept Away Bayou (Facing the Headlights Alone) is a relationship song about connection.</div> <div> ``It's about being completely taken over by somebody in terms of that emotional connection that we call love.''</div> <div> Judas Cart: Crowe's niece, who had lived with his parents and brother for seven years, was finally returning home to her mother. It was Crowe's job to drive her back.</div> <div> ``I turned back to see the look on my brother's face,'' Crowe says recalling the devastation.</div> <div> The good news: his niece lives a great ``balanced'' life with her mother and father and went to the Academy Awards with Crowe last year.</div> <div> ______________________________________________________________________________</div> <div> <I><B>From TheAge:</B></I><I><B> </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Six odd foot of grunt</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>By MICHAEL DWYER</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Sunday 18 February 2001</B></I></div> <div> The newsstands of Sydney's Circular Quay are awash with tidings of “Russell's New Aussie Love”. No need to ask “Russell who?” For the likes of Tom, Nicole, Brad, Jennifer and now the Kiwi Gladiator Russell Crowe, they're unnecessary. Russell our Russell, the man fleetingly pegged as Meg's New Aussie Love is suddenly a recognised fixture in the tabloids' Hall of Fame.</div> <bR> <div> That doesn't mean he's entirely comfortable in this exalted company. Just metres away from the newsstand, in a plush hotel overlooking the harbor, Russell Crowe is holding court in a boys' club. There's indelicate language. A pack of fags sails across the room. Cartons of grog are on standby. Crowe's band, Thirty Odd Foot Of Grunts, is in the house.</div> <bR> <div> Now don't laugh. Don't roll your eyes and lament the hubris of a grown man whose runaway acting career really ought to be enough to quell his juvenile yearning for the microphone and the mosh pit. Though it must be said, these are standard responses.</div> <bR> <div> Given Crowe's acknowledged gifts on a different stage, it's a strange prejudice. How does a man twice nominated for an Academy Award (for The Insider and now for Gladiator) rationalise this mean-spirited view of his parallel (and, for the record, much longer) life as a musician, singer and songwriter?</div> <bR> <div> “How do I rationalise it?” he growls, blowing smoke at the floor in his eagerness to tackle the question. “How do I rationalise having 10 pounds of bullshit written about me on any given day around the globe?” </div> <bR> <div> The rhetorical rejoinder hangs for dramatic effect. “It's the same thing, man. That's got nothing to do with me. That's the thing that Russell Crowe has somehow become and it has nothing to do with me. I just have a sense of humor about it.” </div> <bR> <div> He says this in a humorless tone, before adding: “I have a sense of pity for those people.”</div> <bR> <div> I'm not entirely convinced. The beefy 36-year-old's level gaze, his dense three-day growth and his deep thespian voice make for an intimidating combination. But the pugilistic demeanor soon softens.</div> <bR> <div> “I understand it, mate, because I am as cynical and sceptical about popular music as anybody of my age who's seen the things that come and go,” he says. “But I have the naive belief that if I keep doing it as honestly and as genuinely as I can, then sooner or later people are gonna listen. </div> <bR> <div> “Sooner or later they're gonna realise there hasn't been any hyperbole, it hasn't been shoved down their throats, we're not on a major label and we're not trying to find some kind of marketing strategy to kid people into buying something that they don't need.</div> <bR> <div> “I just maintain the belief that if I do what I do from that point of purity, sooner or later other people will care about it.”</div> <bR> <div> People certainly care about Russell Crowe the film star. In March, Oscar or no Oscar, he starts work on A Beautiful Mind with director Ron Howard for a reported $US15 million. Not even the most ardent admirer of Romper Stomper could have predicted that eight years ago.</div> <bR> <div> “Russell doesn't make decisions with the purpose of pleasing anybody else,” says guitarist Dean Cochran, Crowe's musical right hand since they met in an Auckland nightclub in 1984. “The number of times a record company or somebody else has said to us 'It'll never work, it'll never work' those are most likely the things that end up working.”</div> <bR> <div> Crowe's optimism is not without foundation. His band Thirty Odd Foot Of Grunts (the name refers to a post-production dialogue direction Crowe found amusing while working on Virtuosity in 1995) pulled crowds in excess of two thousand on their handful of US live dates last year.</div> <bR> <div> It's probably fair to suggest that many of those who paid scalpers up to $US500 a ticket for the privilege were there simply to see Meg's new man rather than pay homage to the band. </div> <bR> <div> The question of exploiting his screen success for the good of his music is a vexed one. There's no question Crowe's financial security has given TOFOG opportunities that most independent bands only dream of. Their new album, Bastard Life Or Clarity, was rehearsed in London, recorded in Austin and Sydney and mixed in Los Angeles. There's no record company to foot that bill.</div> <bR> <div> To be sure, there have been offers. Trouble is, they tend to entail a degree of compromise that the band's singer, main songwriter and de facto leader flatly refuses to entertain.</div> <bR> <div> “The multinationals we've met with won't let me be just a part of the band,” Crowe explains. “We were pretty far down the track with contractual discussions just recently and it came down to a change of (album) title, a change of album cover, a change of song list, use of photographs, supermarket promotions.</div> <bR> <div> “I left the meeting and said to (manager) Andrew Watt, 'I can't do it, mate; I cannot do it that way'. It would be of great benefit to him if we signed a multi-national deal, because his contract is all about percentages, but he agreed with me. He cares about it too much to pass it off that way.”</div> <bR> <div> It's a tough call for all concerned. TOFOG's new record might be a smash if it were released with a picture of Crowe on the cover. Instead, it's going out with a faintly discomforting shot of a squealing baby under an enigmatic title that could find it wrapped in brown paper for the US retail chains.</div> <bR> <div> Crowe knows he's making life hard for himself, but he's fine with that. “I didn't just start making hard decisions the other day,” he says with a stoic shrug. “I've been turning down easy money since I really was desperate for money. </div> <bR> <div> “I only got the opportunity to do Gladiator because of the quality of work on The Insider. I only got to do The Insider because of the quality of work in LA Confidential. And that's been the case all the way back.”</div> <bR> <bR> <div> “I never assumed I'd get the opportunity to make movies. What I thought I was aiming for was, at best, a lead role in an Arthur Miller production with the Sydney Theatre Company, preferably at the Opera House. That's what I was aiming for.” He allows himself an indulgent chuckle.</div> <bR> <div> Beyond the critical preconceptions, and regardless of the relative merits of the Grunts' workmanlike urban folk-rock, there's no question Russell Crowe the singer-songwriter is every bit as serious about his work as Russell Crowe the actor.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> “Making music ...” Crowe ponders with some intensity ... “it's the same thing with the acting. It's not something I ever considered not doing. There is no other option for me. </div> <bR> <div> “I get all those clever questions these days: 'Do you think, in another time, you might have been a gladiator?' And I just try to explain to people that even if it was 300 years ago I still would have been an actor or a performer. It's just what I do.”</div> <bR> <div> Fair enough, but I'm reminded of something pop singer Bjork once said, having turned down repeated offers to act (prior to her experience on Dancer in the Dark, which she claims will be the last time she acts): “The world is full of dentists who want to be race-car drivers.” </div> <bR> <div> But for the life of him, Russell Crowe can't see a conflict of interest. “Given that somebody is creative, it's totally understandable to me that that person is creative in multiple mediums. </div> <bR> <div> “(Music and acting) are completely different things. Acting is such an introspective job. It's really about sitting and thinking something through and planning it and then a year later seeing its effect on an audience.</div> <bR> <div> “Music is about absolute immediacy of emotion. There isn't any artifice in it for me. I sit down and write and sometimes the lyrics I write are not very complimentary to the author; that's just the way it is. It's still got to come out.</div> <bR> <div> “I was talking to that bloke from the Red Hot Chili Peppers about this it's Anthony (Kiedis), right? He got really serious about it and he said, 'If I felt I could make a contribution to the artform, then I would act'. I thought well, that's a very sturdy answer but I think the whole thing is your contribution to yourself. You are the artform.”</div> <bR> <div> Ironically, that's where Russell Crowe and the supermarket tabloids agree. Russell is the objet. His acting, let alone his music, has already been eclipsed in some quarters by what he does, or is imagined to do, in his spare time. And yet, as 30 Odd Foot Of Grunts fill the evening air and stars twinkle over the Opera House, blonde bombshells remain in scant evidence. Where oh where is Russell's New Aussie Love?</div> <bR> <div> “The fact is, right,” he says, piercing gaze daring me to call him a liar, “Peta Wilson lives in the area I live in. She doesn't live adjacent to my property, as has been reported in some of the media. Apparently there's photographs of her on a bike ride with me, even though she was in America at the time I was on that bike ride.</div> <bR> <div> “Over Christmas I have a very open-door policy. It's a very family-orientated thing that happens up on my farm and Peta popped in a couple of times with her little ... I think they're either cousins or nephews. But that doesn't constitute a romance.</div> <bR> <div> “I just try not to let it affect me,” he concludes, clearly agitated nonetheless, “because what's the endgame there? How do you stop it? You stop doing what you love? You stop putting yourself in a position where you're working at the highest calibre in an artform which is the most expensive medium that exists on the planet? Who wins then?</div> <bR> <div> “It's just stupidity. And it all comes from some kind of barren series of intellects and I don't feel I need to respond to them. I'm just gonna keep doing what it is that I do.”</div> <bR> <div> Eluding paparazzi aside, A Beautiful Mind is shaping up as the biggest challenge of Crowe's career. He will play Jewish-American academic John Forbes Nash Junior, a Nobel Prize-winning mathematician who has spent most of his life battling schizophrenia. Crowe is yet to meet him, though he clearly already knows his subject intimately. </div> <bR> <div> “I like to come at these things a little slowly, come at them from the outside,” he says. “The incredible thing about John Forbes Nash was that he out-thought the disease. He had such a powerful mind that he stopped taking the drugs that were provided for him and he worked out in his head a way of being able to understand actual reality, as opposed to his imagined reality.”</div> <bR> <div> For somebody in Crowe's position, coming to grips with that dichotomy sounds like a valuable exercise. Like everything else, it's not a challenge he's taking lightly.</div> <bR> <div> “Right now, as I'm talking to you about it, I have no idea whether I'll get anywhere near where it's supposed to go,” he confesses with a nervous laugh. </div> <bR> <div> “At the moment, it's just some gigantic mountain in front of me and I'm staring up at it thinking, 'Maybe they've got the wrong bloke'.”</div> <div> ______________________________________________________________________________</div> <div> <B>Transcript, Allan Border Medal Night, </B></div> <div> <B>February 12, 2001, Melbourne Australia</B></div> <div> <B>Transcribed by: Anne Rawley </B><I>(Thank you!)</I></div> <bR> <div> Eddie: (applause) Well, tonight on the Allan Border Medal Night a touch of Hollywood glamour as we introduce our special guest tonight, he's related, in fact, he's the cousin of New Zealand's famous Crowe brothers, Jeff and Martin, and he would look equally at home I think at the MCG as he did in the Colosseum.  Let's have a look at Russell Crowe in action </div> <bR> <div> [clips from Proof of Life/Gladiator  ending with "My name is Gladiator"]</div> <bR> <div> Eddie: His name is Russell Crowe ......</div> <bR> <div> [applause, cheering from audience - Russell comes out from the wings, long Armani coat open, does a bit of a wing ding around, pointing to one podium then to another, not sure of which podium to go to .... end ups with announcer Eddie]</div> <bR> <div> Eddie: Gooday...</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC (into mike) Good day folks, how ya doing?</I></div> <bR> <div> Eddie: I don't blame you Russell if I was coming out I'd head for Richie Vener(sp) as well, for a chat a bit</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: Hi Richie how are you mate? I'll come over there in a minute I'll just finish with Eddie. (voice full of humour, smile on his face)</I></div> <bR> <div> Richie:  When you're ready</div> <bR> <div> Eddie: We'll ask you a couple, Russell, tell us a bit about the cricket in the back yard with the cousins?  What was it like?</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: I actually never got to do that because I grew up in Australia, and Martin and Jeff grew up in NZ.  So I didn't meet Martin until I was actually about 14, and went to a game at Auckland Boys Grammar , and saw him in 45 minutes score 105 nought out against Kings College, and I had never seen a schoolboy century score before, particularly not that one ....that elegant, you know or anyone at that stage and that was like well, he became my hero after that and I realized that if Marty could achieve the things that he could and he was in my family then maybe I could uh do the things that I wanted to do.  </I></div> <bR> <div> Eddie: Russell, tell us about Gladiator, you had some of the family come over and you actually played a game of cricket on the set, is that right?</div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: Yeah, we have the CCC - which is the Crowe Cricket Club (Eddie laughs, audience does to)...and uh... we had a game against two teams in Malta, we won all the drinking competitions, but with two test captains, right, we lost both games.</I></div> <bR> <div> [Audience laughs uproariously - Russell smiles broadly]</div> <bR> <div> Eddie: Well they were two NZ test captains, though weren't they? [RC: Thanks for coming, Ed. so Richie, what else are we going to do? - looking over towards other podium]</div> <bR> <div> Eddie: So who beat you, the Maltese? </div> <bR> <div> <I>RC: Yes, two Maltese clubs asides whipped us, Marty scored 126 in the first game, again another elegant century, and uh, we were 1 for 165 and then my uncle, the late D.W. Crowe , there were 6 Crowes on the team that day, insisted that I go into bat , I begged him, I said I should stay in the